Two of A Kind
by ECGadget
Summary: Sora has always been a quiet person, but no one really knows why. When someone new moves in next door, Sora suddenly finds it a lot harder to keep himself as mysterious as he wishes. There is something about this girl...
1. Prologue

**_Two Of a Kind_**

**_Hello and thank you for clicking on my story! I hope you enjoy it, and if you do (or don't) please let me know! A few things to note:_**

**_\- I will be trying to keep the chapters no more than 4000 words in length, to make it easier to read and easier for me to update more often_**

**_\- When a chapter first comes out, it will probably have a few spelling and grammar mistakes; this is because I normally write whilst working, or late at night! Rest assured that all mistakes will be corrected after a few days! If I miss any though, please just PM me!_**

**_\- "Scenes" will be split with a horizontal rule. This is because I am not very happy with how the paragraphs work here. The only reason I am using the horizonal rules is so that YOU as a reader finds it as easy as possible to read. Let me know via PM if you don't like them, I'll be happy to remove them!_**

**_\- I will be posting author notes at the top of the chapters, and edit logs at the bottom_**

**_\- I sadly do not own Kingdom Hearts, or any characters associated with it. All rights to the names, places and characters belong to SquareSoft/Square Enix and Disney_**

* * *

**Prologue**

Sora calmly walked down the sandy west beach of Destiny Islands, close enough to the shore to allow the water to gently caress his bare feet. The sun was low in the sky, bathing the beach in a reddish glow. The sea itself sparkled as the gentle waves formed and broke in the light sea breeze. Looking out to sea, and then at his shadow, Sora guessed that he had about half an hour of clear daylight left before the sun dipped below the horizon for the night. He looked up at the crescent moon and let a small smile flicker across his face. Daytime was beautiful for sure, but it was the night that attracted him the most. With the hundreds of thousands of stars twinkling in the night sky, Sora often would stargaze. Occasionally he would use his telescope to take a closer look at an unfamiliar object that would be passing by. Normally they would turn out to be comets, but Sora was sure that he'd seen more than that at least twice before. But for tonight, stargazing was out of the question. With his first day back at school tomorrow, he needed to sleep and regenerate his energy. The last thing he wanted was to be half asleep during school and not aware of what was going on around him. Shame though… it would have been such a good night to stargaze. With a small sigh, Sora cleaned his feet of sand in a nearby waterfall and slipped his shoes back on. With one more glance at the ever lowering sun, he turned on his heel and headed for his little rowing boat that would take him back to the main island and his home.

Destiny Islands was a collection of five islands, of which two were inhabited full time and one housed an airport. The remaining two islands, naturally the two smallest were relatively uninhabited. That was except for families who would go there to have a nice day out, or kids with their friends. Of the two islands, Sora preferred the smallest and spent as much time there as he could. It was small enough to deter most families from visiting it often, but large enough for him to have countless hours alone. This allowed him to collect his thoughts or occasionally get some work done that he was finding particularly difficult. Often, he would climb into one of the old wooden shacks that were part of the tree line. He wasn't sure how old the small buildings were, but they were very stable and Sora had never felt afraid to sit in them. Plus they provided a good view of the ocean. Thinking about all this, Sora had determined that the small island must have been a fishing port of some kind at one point, and one of the tree houses must have acted as a lighthouse of sorts. The pier extended a fair way out to see and was large enough for a decent sized ship to dock. But he hadn't seen anything bigger than his own rowing boat moored to the pier. The one place that Sora had never been on the smallest island was through the small forest. It would take less than 20 minutes to walk through it, but Sora had never found any reason to wander into it. As much as he loved the trees, he didn't like the fact that the trees hid the sky that he loved so much.

* * *

Reaching his home island, Sora let his boat glide into a small docking bay. All the smaller boats, normally owned by the younger generation of the Destiny Islands populace, had to be kept here. This made sure that the large cruise boats, warships and fishing boats would not accidently crush the tiny boats, causing a number of potential problems. Sora liked it that way. As he tied his boat to one of the piers he felt the sea breeze become more brisk and stiff. That was the sign that night was almost upon them.  
"Going to be a chilly night…" he muttered to himself, wondering why he hadn't thought of bringing a jacket. It was spring after all, and whilst the temperatures during the day were fairly warm, the night still hadn't seemed to realise that it was time for it to start warming up. Shivering slightly, Sora headed back towards his home, his eyes darting around as always. He had learnt that by keeping a close look in every direction he would not have a problem avoiding most dangers. Again, this was something that suited Sora. Whilst he was not weak, he wasn't one to pick fights with people or get into any trouble. To that end he kept himself to himself as often as he could, only interacting with people when required. Although it gave people the impression that he was not very talkative or active, it was not true. Those who knew Sora well would realise that he could talk for hours and hours and, provided he slept okay, he would have energy for the entire day, not once complaining about feeling tired or weary. This was just one of the few things that made Sora who he was, but there were not many who had ever seen that side of him. In fact, it had been a long time since Sora had seen that side of himself as well. After a few more minutes of walking along the narrow cobblestone streets Sora reached his home. Pushing the gate open, he walked up the small garden path and up to his front door. As he slotted his key into the lock, he looked over to this right. The "Sold" board that had been up on the house next door had finally been removed. After two weeks of seeing that board up Sora wasn't even sure if anyone had actually bought the house. Nevertheless, he could see lights on through one of the windows, which meant that he finally had new neighbours. As he walked into his own home, Sora wandered what they were like. Hopefully they weren't rude and aggressive, or overtly friendly either. The last neighbours he had were almost perfect. They wouldn't ask many questions, but they gave the impression that they were looking out for him. As he walked into the living room, Sora noticed his mother scribbling down notes on a notepad. She heard and gave him a small wave of greeting. Sora waved back and left his mother to her work. She was almost always busy but Sora understood. Being a single parent wasn't easy at all. Over the past few years, Sora had seen his mother's hair lose its shine and her bright blue eyes (which Sora had inherited) dull. Sora normally did his best to help out around the house by keeping it clean and doing whatever he could to ease the burden on his mother. He hoped that it was helping somewhat. Apart from his blue eyes and brown hair colour, Sora resembled his late father in almost every other way. Not incredibly tall, but not short by any measure, Sora wasn't one that would stand out in a crowd but he could be noticed if someone was looking for him. This was mostly due to his innocent look and crazy hair that stood in every direction, adding three inches to his height. Apart from that, his slim build and goofy smile make him fairly unique in appearance. The smile though was only reserved for special people, and as such he did not reveal it outside.

* * *

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Sora had a hot shower and was ready to turn in for a good nights sleep. Unfortunately for him, the room in the house next door had its light on. Sora sighed slightly. The previous owners of the house had used that room as a spare room and the light was never on at night. The meant that Sora could look out the window and up at the stars above without any trouble. Quietly sliding out of bed, he drew his curtains shut and got back in. Maybe it was just because they were moving in. Not planning to make a big deal over it, Sora turned onto his side, facing away from the window, and held onto his quilt with one hand. No matter what, Sora didn't feel right falling asleep without something to hold on to. His mother told him that when he was young he would hold onto a small face towel or the edge of his pillow, but now he felt that the quilt was a better option. Letting his breathing slow down, Sora closed his eyes and let his day run through his mind one last time before he slept. He found that running through his whole day before sleeping made it much easier to remember the important parts forever, as well as give him a sense of accomplishment over the day. Without that feeling that something productive was done, Sora had a hard time of falling asleep, though even with the feeling of having spent a day well he would still struggle. This time however, he fell asleep soundly within an hour, despite him missing the presence of the open curtains with the moonlight shining through. He didn't even stir when his mother came up a few hours later to make sure he was okay. She quietly walked into the room and made sure Sora was tucked in properly, before smiling and going to her own room to turn in for the night. In his mind, Sora was slightly aware of the presence of someone near him, but he saw no danger or need to wake up or move at all. He allowed himself to ignore the feeling and return to his rest. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and he wanted to be fully prepared for anything.

* * *

_04/04/2014: Minor edits to correct grammatical error_

_06/05/2014: Minor edit to correct spelling error_

_09/05/2014: Edits to prose, correcting spelling, grammar and adjusting text for a smoother read_


	2. Chapter I

_**_Thanks to Starforsaken for pointing it errors, and the review!_**_

* * *

**Chapter I**

Sora was woken up the next morning by the sound of the seagulls screeching overhead. Unlike the uninhabited islands, seagulls were the most common of the birds that flew over Sora's home island. The sound they made was not as pleasant as the other birds, but after years of hearing the same noises he had gotten used to it. Slowly rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he allowed his mind to adjust for the daytime. A minute later he was fully awake and in the bathroom, washing. He could smell pancakes downstairs, which made his stomach growl a little. Walking back into his room he put on his crown shaped pendant and adjusted his jacket. The first day of term at school was always the same: a number of long and boring assemblies, a couple of lessons, homework turning in and extended school hours. The upside to it was that they did not have to wear uniforms on the first day, and they had extended breaks too, allowing people to slowly ease back into the school routine. Nevertheless Sora would have just preferred a normal school day that wouldn't be longer than it needed to be. He jogged down the stairs, jumping the last six and landing quietly on the corridor floor. As was his everyday routine, he would jump as many steps as he could. Once, on a particularly daring day, he had even jumped all sixteen steps and landed just as quietly. Unfortunately for him, his mother had seen, and then subsequently lectured him about the dangers of jumping stairs. Ever since then he had settled for no more than seven or eight, which seemed like a reasonable compromise. Walking into the kitchen, he smiled as the scent of the pancakes filled him, making his stomach growl once again.

"With a stomach growl like that you don't even need to say anything," said his mother, poking her head out from behind the fridge door. Sora allowed a half goofy grin as his mother shut the door and walked up to her son to ruffle his hair and straighten his jacket again.

"Morning mum," said Sora in reply as he sat and started scoffing down the pancakes. His mother joined him after a moment and watched with a tired but amused look on her face.

"I met the new neighbours this morning, they seem really friendly," she commented as Sora continued to wolf down the pancakes. Normally he wouldn't eat so quickly, but with pancakes he just had to. Nodding at what his mother said to show he was listening, he filled up two tumblers with orange juice and passed one to his mother.

"Thanks," she said as she took a sip. "They've got a daughter around your age too. You might want to meet her; she seems just as nice as her parents." Sora stopped eating and looked at his mother.

"Why?" he asked her.

"Because like I said, she is your age, lives next door and is new to the islands. It's your duty as a resident of Destiny Islands to make people feel welcome," she replied in a matter-of-factly tone. Sora knew that he had no good comeback to that, so he just shrugged. His mother smiled. When Sora shrugged it usually meant that he would consider it. And his considering usually meant that he'd do what he could.

* * *

Finishing his breakfast, he quickly washed the dishes and left them to dry before grabbing his backpack and checking the time. He was five minutes early but that suited him just fine. Waving goodbye to his mother, he left his home and started his journey to school. The morning gave every indication that spring was truly upon the Islands. The gulls screeched overhead, while the scent of spring flowers filled the air, mixed in with the salty scent of the nearby ocean. All in all it was an exhilarating scent that filled Sora with more energy. He walked down the gently slope into the valley where the bulk of the town was. Like a lot of the students, Sora lived on the hilltops that were around the edge of the island, because of the views. Almost all of the shops, arcades, cafes and the school were in the valley though. It was fine for the morning walk, but at the end of a school day Sora often heard many complaints about the uphill walk back to the residential areas of the island. He did not mind in the least though; it was a good way to keep him fit and the walk was pleasant, except when it was raining. Then some of the older cobblestone roads would become slippery, and the sandy alleyways would become sticky, causing his feet to start sinking a little. But for today the sun was shining brightly, with a few wisps of clouds floating high above the islands. Making his way down the slopes, Sora caught sight of his school campus. With the close knit communities that they had, there was only one secondary school, catering for students between the ages of 12 and 18. After that the students had a choice of where to continue their studies if they so wished to do so. The second largest island housed a university, and a lot of students chose to stay part of the community and continue studies there. As he walked towards the gates, Sora thought for a moment about that. Though he had over two years to go before he would leave, they had been told to start thinking about university options and what to do in the future. Sora wasn't even sure that university was right for him. He loved to study, but he didn't really like to study because he had to. Whilst he knew that he could choose his subjects in university, the idea of countless hours of revision to pass a subject did not appeal to him at all. He was sure that whatever he wanted to learn would be available to learn on the internet or in the library. Destiny Islands housed one of the oldest and largest libraries in the world, and whenever Sora went there he was never disappointed. Whether he wanted a comic book or a massive textbook on an ancient subject, the library had it all. Perhaps he would pay it a visit at the end of the school day, to see if there was anything new that they had got over the break. Looking at his watch, Sora realised that he still had fifteen minutes to go before the start-of-term assembly. He sat down on the lush grass near one of the school buildings. Though there were benches nearby, he always preferred to sit on the grass. It was a lot softer, and the large palm trees provided plenty of protection from the sunlight on days like this. He took a deep breath, taking in the spring scent once again, before settling down to quietly watch others stroll in.

There was a lot you could learn from the way people dressed, walked and talked, as well as the company they kept. The sporty types always dressed in more sporty clothes, such as tracksuits and sports kits. Some also carried different balls on them, from footballs, basketballs and blitzballs. Sora had once dabbled in basketball and blitzball but, though they were enjoyable, he didn't see himself often playing.

* * *

Normally following in the sporty boys were the cheerleading girls. These were the ones who, for some bewildering reason, spoke in more high pitched voices, bounced around a lot and always flicked their hair. Sora chose to avoid this particular group of people as much as possible; they really confused him.

The "nerdy" groups were often easy to spot too. While they didn't always have glasses or vest style jumpers on their shirts or anything, they had an aura of intelligence about them. Outside they looked pretty ordinary, but in a classroom they were at the top of the food chain. Everyone respected them when they were in their domain, and in return they would receive help from them. Outside of the classroom the nerds kept to themselves, rarely engaging in conversation with others unless absolutely necessary. Sora had seen a few mixing with the sports guys and while not the best players, they were able to hold their own for a while. In his class, Sora would have possibly been classed near the nerdy group.

Apart from these three main groups there were dozens of "sub-groups" which consisted of musical people, gamers, Goths, smart-alecs, idiots, shy gems and loads of others. And then there was a group with just one in it. Sora had identified the group as the "unique" and the only member that he associated with that group was himself, but he never thought about that. Seeing a bunch of slackers walk in through the gates, Sora checked his watch. He knew that if they had walked in, it was almost time for his school day to begin. He got up, stretched and slung his backpack over his shoulder. Satisfied that it was correctly positioned, he walked the remaining few meters and up the steps into the main entrance of his school. Once in the shadow of the building, Sora shivered slightly. Despite the sunshine, the shadows still had a wintery feeling to them. It would probably be a few weeks before the shadows decided to warm up, just like the nights. As people jostled left and right, heading for their lockers or looking for friends, Sora calmly slipped through the crowd, heading for the great hall, deciding to put his bag away later. He never really carried much extra, so his bag was never an annoyance to him. Reaching the hall, he noticed a few hundred students had already found some seats and were settled in, excitedly chattering to friends that they hadn't seen a few weeks. Sora sat a few rows from the back, forward enough to be away from the laziest of the students, but far enough back to avoid the eyes of any teachers, should he decide to switch off for a while. He never really saw the point of the midyear assemblies; there wasn't anything new that was announced and everyone was well aware of the rules after having heard them a gazillion times over. Sometimes a teacher would say something remotely interesting, but during his four years here it had only happened once. Suffice to say, even that wasn't enough to generate too much interest. As the other students filed in and took their seats, the sound of chattering increased. Conversations ranged from shopping and holidays to homework struggles and inter school sport competitions.

"Hey, Sora? Thoughts on how much work we'll get today?" said a voice from a little above him and to his right. Sora turned his head to face his addresser and shrugged.

"Not really sure, probably enough to keep us busy over the weekend, since no one is really going to do it over the week," he replied after a few seconds of thought. The newcomer nodded in agreement and sat down next to Sora.

"Is it too much to ask to not get homework on the first day back though?" he complained. Sora smiled a little. Typical of Tidus to whine about a new terms homework before he'd even got any.

"Well, maybe if you voiced your concerns up at the front…" Sora gestured to the front of the hall where an elevated platform served as a teachers and speech area. Tidus chuckled.

"Yeah, maybe I should. Get the students to start a revolution!" he said half heartedly. Sora chuckled as well. Tidus was one of his closest friends in school, not that that actually meant much. In Sora's world, closest meant the one he would most likely have a conversation with for a short period of time. He rarely asked about Tidus' personal life, and Tidus had learnt not to enquire much about Sora's. It was the sign of a healthy friendship between the two of them. The noise of feedback over the speaker systems told the student body that someone was about to make a speech. Sora turned to face the front, determined to catch the start of the speech, hoping that something would be different this time around. Nothing too drastic though, just a nice small change. Maybe the headmaster was going to announce a change in policy and there wouldn't be any more of these silly assemblies throughout the year. As it happened, the speech started off exactly the same as every other one. Sora sighed a little and, like most of the students, switched off as one by one the teachers covered the rules, regulations and how happy they were to see everyone back refreshed.

* * *

A dozen announcements and four speeches later a dazed and bored set of students trooped out of the hall for the first of the extended breaks. Unlike a normal school day, which began with classes at 0900 until midday and again at 1300 until 1600, today was going to have classes begin at 1030 and continue until 1430, with a break until 1600. The final two classes would then take them until 1800, after which they would be allowed to go home. Sora chose to climb up to the top of the school building, via a secret staircase that he had found over a year ago. As far as he knew, no one else knew about this place except a couple of students who used one of the rooms that could be accessed from the stairs to stargaze at night. Sora would have probably done this too, but he lived high enough to stargaze from his own home. Keying in the code that he had acquired by the means of asking a few discreet questions, he opened the door that led out onto the roof of the school. From there he could look out in every direction and see the whole island, as well as see a couple of the others. He pulled out a drawing pad from his back and started scribbling. He couldn't draw people to save his life, but he thought he was very good at drawing landscapes. And this particular view happened to be one of the best drawing spots he had ever seen.

For the next 45 minutes Sora quietly drew on his pad, humming to himself quietly to keep his focus. From the grounds below he could hear the students talking and laughing and the occasional roar from the students playing games. But at the moment none of that mattered to him. In his mind there was no other noise apart from his humming and the noises of nature. Even the aircraft that roared overhead every fifteen minutes didn't concern him. Starting with the edge of the school, Sora had roughly drawn out the entirely landscape towards the south, out of the direct sunlight. Though not as pretty as the view to the east, he was at least able to focus on the details and shapes without squinting in the sunlight. The let his pencil gently stroke the paper, leaving light marks as the lead sheared from it and stuck to the paper. At the end of the 45 minutes that he was planning to draw for, he had the entire vista drawn out, with only the smaller details missing like the detailing on the houses and the smoke from some chimneys, as well as the trees of the island's largest park. Satisfied at what he had achieved, he marked the spot with some tape and put away his pad. Normally this would leave him fifteen minutes to waste, but this time he had 45. Looking over the edge of the building he peered down at the rest of the students that were milling about the grounds. He could spot Tidus jumping around as he played Blitzball with his friends Wakka, Roxas, Riku, Hayner and Pence. Sora watched them for a while; Wakka was quite fantastic at the sport and ran rings around the others except Riku. Riku for his part was just about able to hold his own against the schools star player. His long silver hair waved around as he moved, causing Sora to chuckle a little. The team often said Riku looked like a girl. Riku often answered with a friendly but firm punch. With Pence, blitzball was not exactly his sort of thing. Though he couldn't really be classed as fat or even chubby for that matter, he wasn't as athletically built as his friends. But to his credit, he did try extremely hard and occasionally surprised everyone with a fantastic bit of play, including himself.

Turning away from the sports fields, Sora spotted the other half of his friend circle, which consisted of a few girls. As usual they were sitting around and relaxing, talking about who knew what and laughing occasionally. Sora was always intrigued how different people who grew up together could have such similar likes and dislikes and yet act so very differently. For example, Namine loved the same basic things that Olette did, but unlike the emerald eyed girl who was fairly hyper and loud, Namine was very quiet and shy. Xion on the other hand was a complete fashion opposite to Namine. While the shy blonde often wore light dresses which were almost always white, Xion preferred to wear jeans and tops, coupled with long jackets. Most of the time these were pure black, just like her jet black hair. And yet they were great friends who both loved to read, draw and have a picnic on the beach. Similarly, Sora himself was quiet and mysterious around people, and yet his most of his friends were a lot more outgoing and jovial. It made for a very interesting group of people. After a few moments of watching his friends, Sora returned to normal observations, gazing around to see what he could spot but after a few moments he became disinterested. One and a half hours for a break was far too long. He looked towards the clock tower that was in the centre of town to check the time. He still had twenty five minutes. Sora checked one last time to make sure that everything was properly packed in his bag before heading back down the staircase towards the heart of the school, making sure that he shut the door to the roof carefully behind him. A soft bleep behind him let him know that the electromagnetic solenoid had dropped into place, meaning the lock had activated.

* * *

When Sora reached the main corridor that led to all the various areas of the school he turned left, towards the main entrance. Pausing for a moment, he changed his mind and instead went towards the right, taking the first turning off the corridor to get to his locker. Turning the locking mechanism until it clicked open, Sora was not aware of someone quietly approaching him. It was not until he heard the gruff voice call him that he realised that he had let his guard down due to drifting thoughts.

"Sora, what are you doing indoors on a day like this?" said the voice. Sora spun around and looked up at the school headmaster. He was tall and well built, and his face had a good natured look. His blonde hair had grown slightly since Sora had last seen him, and it was slowly getting whiter. He smiled at Sora, a quirky smile that showed a glimmer of his cheeky youthful nature. Despite the small white beard and moustache that was now growing on his face, he still looked like he had plenty of life left in him. Sora smiled back, knowing that he was not in any trouble whatsoever.

"Too much free time, Cid," he replied as he shrugged, closing his locker as he did so.

"You know what kid; you may be one of the only ones who would ever complain about too much free time," replied the headmaster, Cid. Sora was one of the only ones who could call the man by his name, but he only did so when there were few people about. He didn't want to seem disrespectful.

"Guess so," commented Sora idly. He was sure there would be more that wouldn't like the extra long breaks too much. Cid chuckled gruffly and adjusted the goggles on his forehead. Almost any time that Sora had seen him, Cid had goggles on him. He supposed it was because Cid loved to tinker with things. This time the goggles had a light blue tint to them. Sora pointed to them.

"New goggles I see," he said as the two of them walked back to the main corridor.

"Yup," replied Cid. "Much better for eye protection when welding," he explained. Sora nodded; that would be a logical explanation for them. Passing Cid's office, Sora watched as the headmaster walked in, giving Sora a nod to say goodbye. Sora gave him a small salute in return and walked through the main entrance into the bright sunlight. Once outside, he found a nice place to sit down and take the sun in and waited until the bell rang, indicating that it was the end of break. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

_03/04/2014: Small edits for errors_

_10/05/2014: Major edits throughout chapter. Changed/added prose_


	3. Chapter II

**_Well this is officially my first content update for this story, since chapters I and II were released together. I hope you guys/girls enjoy it, and please do leave comments. Fanfiction is not exactly my strength, but I am getting used to it slowly! Without further ado, here is chapter III!_**

**__Many thanks to MasterKaze for popping in a review. And of course to YOU for reading this.__**

**_ECGadget_**

* * *

**Chapter II**

Although Sora preferred to be alone in recent years, he had not always been like this. As a young boy Sora was always smiling happily and playing with anyone who would play with him, laughing and talking until he could do so no more. That was how he had met his current group of friends, more or less. They knew him well enough to leave him alone, but they also knew that if they ever needed anyone to help them with anything in their lives, Sora would be more than willing to help out. But even though Sora would be there for them, they knew that he would never ask anyone else for help. Namine often had said that she was concerned about him, but soon realised that there really wasn't much to be concerned about. Even if she was, there wasn't anything that she could do about it. That was just Sora's nature and over time she had come to accept it along with everyone else. As such, when Sora left school in the evening, he always walked alone. Normally taking a longer but more scenic route, Sora managed to avoid most of the students heading home and just let his mind wander to things that interested him. On this particular day he was thinking about sailing boats of old, and how his ancestors would have found their way onto this island. As a general rule, people rarely moved to Destiny Islands, and people rarely moved away, so everyone had at the very least a vague idea of who everyone else was. When someone new did move in, it was all the island could talk about for a few days. Sora wondered if that would be annoying. He supposed that if he was a newcomer to town at this age he would be positively annoyed at this. But he guessed that some people would like the fame, especially if it was only for a short while.

Walking along one of the old alleyways, Sora caught sight of the movement of a shadow, and immediately stopped. His eyes darted around as his train of thought went to more sinister subjects. There was an old tale of creatures that once had attacked the islands, many generations ago. But nobody still alive had ever seen one of these creatures, and it was generally regarded as a tale to scare children into behaving themselves and not wandering out alone. Nevertheless, Sora was a little more inclined to believe the tale for more reasons than one. But he also had yet to see one of these creatures. Rumoured to lurk in the darkest of shadows, they were said to be of darkness themselves with glowing yellow eyes that would instil fear into even the bravest of warriors. But Sora wasn't afraid of the stories. He never had been. After a few seconds Sora continued walking, supposing that the moving shadow was just a bird or a stray cat wandering around. Nevertheless, he did feel a very slight sense of unease, but once he stepped out onto a main road and saw the golden sunlight radiate as far as he could see, all feelings of unease just evaporated. This was destiny islands, one of the safest places in the world. And that was exactly how it was going to stay.

Sora reached home some thirty minutes later, and noticed his mother was still at work. He quickly had something to eat before taking a shower and changing into fresh clothing. The midday sun had obviously had a point to prove to the night, and thus it was a much warmer day than it should have been. Hopefully the night would be pleasant, warmer than the previous but still comfortable enough to sleep with covers. Sitting down at his desk, Sora pulled out the homework that he had gotten over the day and began. Even though it wasn't due for a week, he felt that it would be better to get it done and out of the way, so that he would have more time later in the week to pursue his own interests. In any case, it also meant that whilst the lessons were fresh in his mind, he would be able to use what the teachers had said and apply them without too much thought. As he started his maths homework, he noticed that the light was on in the spare room of the house next door again. He hoped that it wouldn't be on into the night, as he really wanted to gaze at the stars. For some reason they always helped him to sleep. Ignoring the light, he continued on with his homework. Whilst Sora wasn't the social or sporty type per say, he made up for it in academics. A few of his teachers called him gifted, but Sora believed that it was just because he kept an open mind and tried to learn about everything that he excelled in school. He scribbled down a few more correct answers before standing up to stretch. Sitting for too long made him feel tired and lazy, and he hated feeling like that, though laying down when he didn't have anything else to do was always enjoyable. Walking over to the window, he opened it slightly to let a breeze in, airing and cooling his room nicely. Smiling a bit, he walked back to his desk to finish his work.

* * *

Two hours later, the sun had dipped below the horizon and night had once again fallen. Sora was no longer in his room, but instead sitting atop his roof, on the flattest part. Inside the house, Sora's mother was fast asleep after a long day, but Sora felt wide awake. Since the light was once again on in the neighbour's room, he decided that he would stargaze from the top of his house. He didn't do this often, but when he did he would lie calmly on the gently sloping roof and watch as the stars twinkled at him, with an occasional meteorite shooting across the sky, glowing and leaving a magnificent trail for but a second as it burnt up. Some 25 miles away, the airport was taking in the last of the flights for the night. For the next six hours there would be nothing but the sound of nature.

"You know, if you stay up there you're going to fall."

Sora frowned and looked down towards the voice. Hanging out of the window of the spare room next door was a red haired girl. She was looking up at him with a small smile and some confusion in her eyes.

"What are you doing up there anyway?" she asked curiously. Sora shrugged and carefully got down.

"Couldn't sleep," he muttered, just loud enough that she could hear. The girl nodded a little, a smile still on her face.

"Oh, I see. Well, I hope you get to sleep soon," she said kindly. Sora gave her a small smile as a thank you before she closed her window and disappeared behind her curtains. Sora drew his curtains and lay in bed. So that room was no longer unoccupied. That meant that depending on the kind of girl she was, he could expect lights on for most of the night. Getting into bed, Sora forced himself to fall into a slightly uneasy sleep.

* * *

Kairi looked at the window as she lay in her bed. She hadn't expected to see someone laying on a rooftop of the house next door, much less a teenage boy. She wondered why he really lay there. She was almost 100% certain that it wasn't just because he could not sleep. Thinking for a moment, she picked up her diary and wrote.

_"Dear me in the future,_

_ Finally got all my things unpacked, the place actually now looks much like my home. Hooray for me. I have heard that not many people come to Destiny Islands to live, and not many people leave. I hope the other children accept me at school tomorrow. I have no idea what to expect! The headmaster, Cid, seems really nice but that doesn't mean everyone else will be… I have to admit I am a little scared. Is that normal? I guess it is! But all my life I have only known Radiant Garden as my home, and now I will have to look at a new home. Gah, I think I am over thinking again! Of course it will be okay!_

_I was about to close the curtains just now and I saw a boy laying on the roof next door. So strange! I'll have to find out why he was doing that. Maybe he likes to stargaze like me? Or maybe he is just weird. His hair sure looked it, all spiked up and all over the place. Still, he looked like a nice person. Hmmm, should probably ask him his name tomorrow. If I see him that is._

_Right, I better go to sleep now, big day tomorrow! I apparently missed the first day, so I'll end up being thrown straight into lessons. Yay for me, right?_

_Night night me in the future!"_

Satisfied with what she had written, she closed her diary and clipped the lock back into place. Popping it safely in her drawer, she switched off the light in her room and fell asleep peacefully.

* * *

Sora had just fallen asleep when he was rudely awoken by his alarm clock, or so he thought. He groaned and switched it off, slowly opening his eyes. Checking the clock, he noticed it was already 6am. Covering his mouth and yawning, he set about with his pre-school routine. Forty minutes later, he was ready, bag packed and all traces of tiredness gone from his face. Leaving his house, he made sure the door was locked and walked down the garden path. As he turned towards the school, he noticed the girl that he had seen last night, hanging out of the window, also leave her door. She saw him and smiled, giving a small wave. Sora gave a small nod back at her before continuing along the way. He didn't want to be rude, but he wasn't exactly comfortable with company, especially that of a person who was completely unknown to him. Nevertheless, the girl increased her pace and quickly caught up to him.

"Hi," she said simply, with a bright smile on her face. Sora turned to glance at her and found a very small smile play at his own lips. She gave off an aura of innocence and happiness that was very infectious. Sora was careful not to let it affect him though.

"Hello," he said, keeping his reply short, as to not encourage more conversation. The redhead obviously hadn't got the hint.

"Sleep well?" she asked, her smile pretty much frozen on her face. Sora was about to nod but then shook his head a little. He had been taught not to lie, unless absolutely necessary and this wasn't one of those times.

"Not really," he replied, a slight hint of his restless night showing in his voice. The smile faded on the girls voice.

"Awww… why ever not?" she asked, genuinely concerned. Sora shrugged. He honestly had no idea, but it was a common occurrence for him. Ever since a few years ago, he had started to have trouble sleeping, with disturbing thoughts and dreams plaguing him throughout the night. The stars helped him, which was why he loved to stargaze, and every few nights he got a few hours of peaceful uninterrupted sleep that actually refreshed him.

"Well, I hope you sleep better tonight," said the girl. "I'm Kairi by the way, what's your name?"

Sora felt a strange feeling of recognition at that point. He was sure he'd heard that name before, but he couldn't remember where or when.

"That's… a nice name," he said as they walked down into the valley towards the school. "I'm Sora."

Kairi smiled as she tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear.

"Thank you, your name is nice too. I think I've only heard it once before, a very long time ago," she replied. Sora smiled a little more as the two of them fell into a quiet walk for a while. Although Kairi wanted to ask more, she realised that Sora preferred to walk quietly, and so she would do so too. Perhaps he wasn't too comfortable around strangers. Or girls. Kairi giggled a little when she thought of that. Sora suddenly turned his head towards her.

"What?" he asked her curiously, tilting his head ever so slightly. Kairi shook her head a bit, indicating that it wasn't anything important. But Sora kept looking at her. There was no sign of annoyance in his eyes, just pure curiosity. Kairi conceded and decided to tell him; his look was too innocent to ignore.

"Was just thinking why you were quiet, just thought maybe you're not comfortable around girls," she said quietly, waiting for him to get angry. To her surprise, he chuckled a short but kind chuckle.

"Not at all, I'm just not one for company," he explained, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets. Kairi looked at him a little sadly. She thought that perhaps she had made her first friend here, but that did not seem to be the case.

"Oh… okay. I'll not bug you again then," she said as she let herself slow down to her normal pace, so the spiky haired boy could go on alone. She didn't expect him to slow down with her though.

"Don't be silly," he said as he looked at her. "Just because I am not one for company doesn't mean that I am not going to walk a girl from her home to school!"

Kairi felt the day get just a little brighter at that statement. She looked at him and wondered if he was just doing this out of necessity or whether he actually wanted to walk with her. In that instant he seemed to have read her mind and shook his head slightly.

"No, I am not walking with you just to not be rude. We're neighbours now, and therefore I should expect your company. Therefore I want to walk with you."

Kairi grinned widely. So he did want to be her friend. Feeling a little more relaxed around Sora, she looked at him cheekily.

"Hey, if you wanted to be my friend all you had to do was ask," she said. Sora smiled the small smile Kairi had seen the night before and shook his head a little again. This new friend of his was going to be a tough one. He thought for a few moments. Unlike his other friends, this one seemed a lot warmer, as if he had known her for a very long time. Maybe it was just because she was new that he felt a little more curious about her, and after a week or so it would settle. But Sora didn't think that was the case. The name, the red hair, the cheeky tone, it all seemed familiar to him. But no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out. There didn't seem to be a single memory that linked the three together and to him. Sora frowned. It was not like him to not be able to remember anything specific like that, and if it was déjà vu he wouldn't feel it for such a long period of time. A tap on his shoulder brought him back to his senses.

"Hey, you okay?" said the voice to his right. Sora blinked a few times and realised that he was almost outside the school. He turned to Kairi and nodded, again the sense of familiarity washing over him.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Don't worry," he said as he brought himself back to reality.

"Who said I was worried? I was half ready to watch you walk into that tree," she replied cheekily. She didn't know why, but she felt as though she could be cheeky with Sora and he wouldn't mind. She sure hoped that she was right though. If she wasn't, she would probably find out soon enough. Sora smiled.

"Yeah right, you knew that without me you'd not make your way into the school," he retorted. Kairi shrugged. That was actually partially true, but before she could respond, another voice joined in.

"Whoa… Sora is smiling, with a random girl? What's going on?" said the voice teasingly. Kairi turned to look at the newcomer and felt her eyebrows rise a little in surprise. If this one was not blonde and didn't have a different hairstyle he could have easily been Sora's twin brother. The resemblance was uncanny. The boy must've had realised what she was thinking and laughed.

"No, we're not twins. I couldn't stand living with him," he said as he laughed. Sora pretended to look hurt as he was lightly shoved.

"Kairi, meet Roxas. Roxas, this is Kairi," he said simply. Roxas grinned at her and shook her hand.

"Kairi eh? That's a nice name. So tell us your secret," he said. Kairi looked at him with a confused expression on her face.

"How on earth have you managed to get Sora to smile without even knowing him?" he explained. Kairi shrugged, and looked at Sora who wasn't smiling anymore. She couldn't really put an expression on his face right now. It didn't show any positive feelings, but it didn't show any negative ones either. It was just… well the best word that you could use for it was impassive.

"Yeah, that's his normal face. Don't worry about it; it doesn't get uglier than that." Roxas was full of snide remarks as always, but Kairi didn't know this.

"Oh leave him alone, just because you can't have his hair. Not that I can see a reason why you'd want that over this," said a new voice from behind Sora. For a boy that preferred to be alone, he sure seemed to have a lot of company this morning. She turned around and looked up at another boy, much taller than the rest. He was playfully flicking his silver hair around, which fell down to his shoulders. Unlike Sora and Roxas who both had identically bright blue eyes, he had green eyes and didn't look like he could be a triplet. Roxas laughed.

"No, because you see I am not a girl," he said, immediately ducking as the taller boy aimed a light punch at him.

"I'm sorry about them, they like a good laugh," said a soft voice by Kairi's left ear, causing her to jump. Sora smiled slightly as that happened. Trust Namine, the softest and kindest of his friends, to scare the new girl by just trying to be friendly.

"Oh my! I am so sorry!" she exclaimed. Kairi quickly regained her composure and smiled, though a little trace of shock was present on her face. She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at the girl who spoke to her.

"No no! It's okay, I should have noticed you!" she said. Sora watched as Kairi got into a conversation with Namine, and Roxas and Riku continued to play fight. He figured that this was the perfect time to slip away. Quietly backing away from the group, he concluded that Kairi was in good hands, especially with Namine, and thus he was no longer needed. That gave him a perfect reason to leave as he always did.

"…So don't worry if you don't understand things, because the teachers are all really helpful, even if they are strict! And we're all here to help too, so you won't have any problems!" Namine finished her introduction while Kairi carefully listened. The girl was full of helpful information, and was ever so friendly. For some reason, Kairi saw a vague reflection of herself in the girl. Maybe Namine would be her "twin" in the same was Roxas was Sora's "twin". Speaking of Sora, Kairi looked around for him. It seemed that during the conversation with Namine, he had just melted away into the crowds of students and completely disappeared.

"Don't worry, he does it a lot," said Namine quietly. "We've got used to it; he'll show up again in class."

Kairi slowly nodded, wondering why Sora did that. There must be some reason, and while his friends had got used to the idea of him appearing and disappearing at random, she decided that it would be more fun to find out why. Kairi inwardly smiled. Operation Sora had now commenced.

* * *

_11/05/2014: Edits throughout chapter for spelling/grammar_


	4. Chapter III

**_Apologies for a late update. Unfortunately I will not be very good at updating at a set time, with so much that I need to do! This chapter was not exactly easy to write, but I hope that it helps you understand the characters a little more. Without blabbering on too much, here is chapter III! Enjoy!_**

* * *

**Chapter III**

Tracking Sora was a tougher job than Kairi had first thought. Despite the fact that she walked to school with him, and back home with him, she had got no closer to finding anything else out about him. She had looked out her window a couple of times at night, to see if he was on the roof again, but he hadn't done that again as far as she knew. As for the time in school, Sora would be around during the lessons as far as she knew, but between lessons and during the breaks she had only seen him once during the week. Namine, who seemed to be the friendliest of Sora's friends, had told her that she would not find Sora. He had this knack of disappearing whenever he wanted. If he didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be. Nevertheless Kairi was determined to find out where he would disappear to during the breaks. Unfortunately for her, it was very difficult for her to get any time to quickly slip away like he seemed to do. Being a newcomer on the islands, she was regarded as the local celebrity. Every which way she turned she found people wanting to say hello to her and get to know more about her. At first she had thought that perhaps it was just people trying to make her feel at home, but after two days it had started to get really annoying. Luckily her new friends did their best to keep her out of the spotlight. Who knew that Riku had such a commanding presence around others? He just had to glare at them for a few seconds and they would sulk away. Xion, who seemed to be completely opposite to Namine, at least in terms of style, also tried her best to help out. But they were not always around, and when they weren't, poor Namine, who was happy to stick by Kairi's side whilst she got used to the school, was unable to prevent various people swamping the new student. So Kairi had to endure the endless questions about why she moved to this island, what her favourite thing was so far, and a number of people asking her out on dates. Normally a very polite person, even she was finding her politeness wearing thin after a couple of days. When lunch time arrived on the Friday, Kairi found that despite her best efforts to keep up with Sora, he still managed to slip away thanks to the rest of the students, which were very quickly angering her.

"Lost him again," she muttered quietly as she found Xion and Tidus and gratefully made her way over to them. Tidus smirked and looked at Kairi.

"You still trying to track down Sora? You must really like him!" he commented. Kairi blushed slightly and shook her head.

"No! I just want to know his story," she retorted. "The same way everyone here wants to know mine…"

Xion patted her new friend on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't try. He won't tell anyone," she said simply. Kairi sighed. She couldn't explain it, but Sora seemed to have really piqued her interest more than anyone else on this island. She wasn't sure why or what it meant, but she felt that there was something really important in his story and she just had to know.

"Who won't tell anyone what?" said a very familiar voice. Kairi kept the grin off her face as she turned around to face Sora. From behind Kairi, Tidus snickered.

"Nothing Sora, Kairi was just telling us how much she…" he quickly shut up as Xion elbowed him in the stomach.

"We were just telling Kairi how YOU won't tell anyone anything." Unlike the rest of the group, Xion was always straight to the point, regardless of what it was. Kairi decided that if anyone ever had to deliver any bad news to her, she would not like it to be Xion. Sora looked at her.

"That's up to me though, isn't it?" he asked. Though his words appeared defensive, his tone was nothing but impartial. Kairi decided to probe the matter further.

"Yeah," she started. "But there must be a reason that you don't want to tell anyone anything, right?"

Sora shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't really matter though," he replied. Again, there was no trace of any defensiveness or anger in his voice. This made Kairi even more curious. She smiled at him and looked him in the eye.

"Sora, I am going to crack you one way or another. That's a promise," she said. Sora raised one eyebrow.

"Sorry Kairi, but I highly doubt that," he replied. Inwardly though, he felt that if anyone was going to get to know him more than he wanted, it would be her. But he wasn't going to give in without a fight. Namine had poked and prodded to find his secrets and story out for a few years, and he hadn't caved in. There was no way that he was going to let his secrets out to the new girl on the island. It just wasn't going to happen. Kairi giggled and stepped closer to him.

"Well, we shall see," she said before turning elegantly on her heel and walking away. Sora watched her leave curiously. Normally he was the one that did the leaving, not anyone else. Tidus tapped Sora on the back.

"Man, you've got a problem," he said. Sora slowly nodded.

"Thank you for pointing that out," he replied with a trace of rare sarcasm. Tidus watched Kairi disappear around a corner, heading for the grounds.

"She really seems determined to find out you know. I can't put my finger on it. Could be a good time for you to open up to all of us," commented Xion. Sora turned to look at her. She shrugged.

"Just an idea; I mean we've been friends quite a long time. If anyone deserves to know what your secrets are, it's us right?"

Sora frowned and closed his eyes for a few seconds.

"No. Nobody is going to find out anything. You guys have always been okay with it, and I know that won't change. Kairi will learn to stop asking soon enough. Besides, it isn't about deserving to know secrets. I just don't want to really tell anyone," he said bluntly before sliding away. Xion looked at Tidus.

"I think she hit a nerve," she said quietly. Tidus nodded. That was for certain.

"The question is why now? We've tried to pry into his personal life plenty of times before, and he hasn't ever been annoyed about it. I'm telling you, that girl Kairi has somehow got under his skin. She MUST know something about him." Tidus was sure of that.

"How could she? She has only been on the island a couple of weeks at most. Sora said that they first met when she saw him laying on his roof from her room. That means that they really don't know each other." Xion was a little baffled. She had not known Sora to ever feel irritated; that was more like something Roxas or Riku would feel.

"Well, there must be something, right? You can't tell me that Sora is just annoyed because she is trying to find out about him. I mean, we've all tried that before and we've never had that issue."

Xion thought about what Tidus was saying and was forced to believe there was something definitely up between the two. She looked in the direction that Sora had walked off in and tilted her head ever so slightly. That boy was a strange one indeed.

* * *

Tidus had half expected Sora not to show up for the next class at the end of the lunch break but, in typical Sora style, he appeared about a few seconds before the start of class, unnoticed by anyone until he had sat down comfortably at his desk, though there was a small but visible frown on his face. Tidus turned to Roxas and raised his eyebrow. Roxas shrugged and looked at Sora too. It was highly unusual to see Sora frowning. Occasionally they would see him smile or laugh, but as far as Roxas could remember, Sora did not frown. Not in public anyway.

"I wonder what's wrong?" muttered Roxas. Tidus rolled his eyes in the direction of Kairi, who had not noticed anything since she was sitting in front of Sora.

"What did she do?" said Roxas, keeping his voice low. Tidus shrugged.

"Not exactly sure, but I think she knows something about him," replied Tidus. Roxas chuckled slightly.

"Tidus, Kairi is new in town. We've known Sora for how many years, and we've never found anything out about his personal life. There is no way that Kairi can have something on Sora," he remarked. Tidus shrugged again.

"You and Xion are the same. I'm telling you that she knows something. Maybe because they are neighbours?" Tidus was defiant in his beliefs, but Roxas felt there was something much more complex going on. One girl was not enough to annoy Sora.

"Roxas! You look like someone who knows all the answers. Would you be so kind as to tell everyone the answer to my latest question?" Roxas inwardly cringed. He should have really been paying attention to Eraqus. Quickly looking at the board, he tried to find any clue as to the question that had been posed. Finding none, he sheepishly looked up.

"I don't know, Sir," he said quietly. Eraqus smirked slightly.

"This is why it is important to pay attention at all times. You never know when someone may throw something unexpected at you. I didn't pose any questions. I was talking about this terms projects and how we've decided to split it up," he explained. The class laughed at Roxas' expense, except Sora. He remained quiet with the frown still upon his face, which did not go unnoticed by the aging teacher. He let his eyes rest on the boy for a split second before he let it slip, but only for the time being.

"So, for the benefit of Roxas here, I'll repeat what I just said before I continue." He paused for a second to make sure that everyone was paying attention, his hazel coloured eyes scanning the class. Once he was satisfied with the alertness of the students he repeated the information he was giving out to the class.

"Instead of having three small projects for your three science modules, we are going to allow you to choose one large project. It will naturally have to be three times as complicated as one of the smaller ones, but it will allow you to spend more time doing what you like to do. As usual though, we will be having you all pair up, or get into groups of three, depending on what you prefer. But remember, if there are three of you, we will be harsher when we mark you." At this there was a groan that rumbled around the class.

"Don't start that. We're only trying to be fair." The protests died down after a few moments.

"Good. Now to be nice to you all, I am going to give you the entire class today to discuss your partners and projects. I expect you to have picked your groups and preferably have a good idea about what project you want to do by Monday. I've laid out some example projects and ideas around the room, so please feel free to look around and see what you like." With that, Eraqus quietly sat back down at the front of his desk, ready to enjoy a relaxing class. But the former martial arts master was ever alert, and kept a close eye on Sora. Having known his father when they were younger, Eraqus had seen the boy grow up and knew how much he had changed, at least on the outside. Today, however, he seemed slightly different. The frown on his face was very uncharacteristic, and instead of getting busy with his work he just sat silently at his desk, observing the class in a similar way to how Eraqus himself was observing him. But the old master knew better than to interfere with the life of the young boy. Nevertheless, he kept an eye on him.

* * *

Sora gazed around the class as people started walking around and talking amongst themselves. The ones who were more interested in getting a good grade were looking around the classroom, checking the various projects that had been pointed out.

"Sora?" A soft voice on his left caught his attention. He turned to look at who called and felt the frown melt slightly. He knew exactly what Namine was thinking.

"You know me better than to ask, Namine," he said quietly. Namine nodded a bit and placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

"Doesn't hurt to ask though, right Sora?" she replied. Sora shook his head slowly.

"Of course not, thank you. Really," said Sora, showing that he did appreciate her care. Namine quietly walked off to see if she could find a partner and a project. Sora watched as she walked around the classroom and sighed a little. Namine was always ever so kind to him, and he often felt that it was extremely unfair for him to behave the way he did with her. But that didn't stop him from keeping his secrets. After all, he did have a right to privacy, just like anyone else did.

"Not going to find a partner?" Sora looked up to see Eraqus standing where Namine had been just a few moments ago. Sora shrugged slightly.

"You know that I prefer to work alone, Sir," he said in a respectful tone. Eraqus sighed.

"Sora, you are possibly the most stubborn student I have ever had the fortune, or misfortune, of teaching. Now this project requires you to work with a partner, or two partners if you wish. I would highly recommend that you put aside your current feelings and focus on the task at hand. You may find that you'll enjoy company during this project," Eraqus smiled a little at the look sceptical Sora gave him. "Okay, so maybe you won't enjoy the company. The point is, you may find that all your friends have teamed up by the time you start looking. And I know that you would rather be with your friends than a complete stranger. In fact..." thinking for a moment, Eraqus looked over at the redhead who was idly wandering around the room, wondering what everything was about.

"As I understand it, you and..."

"Yes, we are. But I do not think it would be fair for Kairi if she were to be placed with me. After all, she could probably use someone who would be more than willing to spend plenty of time in her company, so that she has a fair chance," Sora cut across the teachers thoughts. Eraqus looked at Sora with curiosity. That was quite unusual for him to cut across a teacher. He slowly nodded and watched as Kairi walked over to Sora, a bright smile on her face. Sora looked at her and tilted his head slightly, his way of asking what she wanted, without actually saying anything at all.

"I was looking for a partner," explained Kairi, "And I thought that maybe you'd be mine, since we're neighbours."

"I don't think I would be a good partner for you, Kairi," replied Sora. He didn't feel bad about saying this because he knew that it was true. As he had told Master Eraqus, there were plenty of people about that would be happy to help Kairi to settle in and show her exactly what the teachers expected of them. He was sure that Namine would not have a problem with partnering Kairi, or Roxas. Then again, nor would any one of his friends and, judging by the way everyone seemed to treat Kairi, nor would anyone else object.

Sora looked at her, a slight frown still on his face. She stuck her lower lip out slightly in a pout and looked at him.

"That won't help. Pouting isn't something I fall for," said Sora, dismissing her act to get him to give in. Kairi thought for a few short seconds before trying another tactic.

"I promise that I won't keep poking you about things," she said. Sora thought about this, staring at Kairi. In the meanwhile, Eraqus had slipped away and let the two teenagers settle whatever differences they had. Though in all his time that he had known Sora, he had never come across someone who had a problem with him, or that he had a problem with.

"Really?" Sora looked at Kairi with one eyebrow slightly raised. She nodded with earnest, her smile, which had never fully left her face, growing once again. After a moment Sora gave a slight nod, choosing to trust her. Her smile didn't seem fake at all, and he didn't sense that she wanted to be his partner just to bug him.

"Alright, you've got a partner," he said with a little uncertainty. This could turn out to be a terrible mistake on his part. Kairi grinned and sat next to Sora.

"So, any ideas on what to do, partner?"

Sora shrugged as the two started jotting down rough ideas.

_'Now I just have to be the best friend he has ever had,'_ thought Kairi. That way he may reveal why he was so secretive and where he disappeared all the time.

From a distance, Namine watched Kairi and Sora start working. She smiled a little and tapped Xion.

"What?" asked Xion, who was busy examining a strange project that involved using lasers to make 3D looking pictures. Namine nodded towards Sora and Kairi. Xion raised her eyebrow.

"Kairi looks really happy about the arrangement. I wonder if that's what Master Eraqus was talking to Sora about," she remarked. Namine shook her head.

"No, I think Sora is a little curious and so he's willingly become her partner," said Namine. Xion chuckled.

"I don't recall Sora ever that 'curious' about us," she said with a smile. Namine rolled her eyes.

"I didn't mean curious like that. I think he just wants to get to know her, just like everyone else does. But unlike the rest, he has the advantage that Kairi is really intrigued by him. I wonder if he'll tell her anything?" Namine's voice trailed off as he let the thought hang in the air. A hand waving in front of her face made her snap out of her train of thought.

"Sora? Are we talking about the same Sora here? He won't tell anyone anything. We all know this. Namine, you should know this more than anyone else, with the amount you tried," interjected Tidus, who had taken interest to the conversation that was taking place between the two girls. Namine frowned.

"I know, I know. But I'm just saying that it could be possible, right?"

"Not a chance, Namine. Not a chance..." said Tidus as he walked off in search for a partner. Namine sighed. She was Sora's first friend as far as she knew when he has first moved onto the islands, about eight years ago. She had also known Sora's father, who had been working on the islands before he had moved here. At first, Sora was as playful and hyperactive as any eight year old. But a couple of years later he had changed. It wasn't an overnight change, but more of a gradual change. Two years later he lost his father, but strangely enough it didn't seem to affect him as much as she thought it would have. Normally for a twelve year old this would be a traumatic time, but Sora accepted it without difficulty and moved on. It was at this point that the blonde girl realised that there was something very important to Sora, something that he had done or perhaps forgotten. That was the thought that consumed all his time and his memory. Everything else seemed a little less important, no matter what it was. Sora was looking for something, and still hadn't found it.

* * *

_11/05/2014: Edits for spelling, grammar and flow of prose_


	5. Chapter IV

**_Crazy weird how I managed to write another chapter, but here it is! I hope you enjoy! _**

**_Gadget_**

* * *

**Chapter IV**

Eight in the morning on a Saturday. Sora sat on his bed, staring blankly at the wall on the other side of his room. After a few moments he blinked and rubbed his head. Being up this early on a Saturday should have been illegal for a sixteen year old. Yawning, he slid out of bed and continued on with his routine of getting dressed. Exactly twenty minutes later, Sora was out the house and waiting near the gate. A few moments later he heard the door of the house next door open and then quietly close. A now familiar redhead stepped off the porch and skipped over happily to where Sora was waiting.

"Good morning!" she said cheerily. Sora looked at her and smiled slightly, being polite as always.

"Morning Kairi, sleep well?" he asked her as the two started walking down towards the valley. Normally Sora would be heading in the opposite direction, towards the coast so he could row out to one of the outlying islands to spend the day, but with Kairi being his project partner he wanted to keep his secret hideout exactly that: secret. Kairi nodded happily.

"I slept well, thanks! How about you?"

Sora shrugged a bit. As always, he had difficulty sleeping for some unknown reason. When he did get to sleep, his dreams were almost always the same. And they really didn't help him feel comfortable when he slept. Kairi looked at him, a little concerned. Though she had not known him long at all, for the entire week that she had asked him the same question, he always replied with a shrug. He never looked tired, but Kairi felt that he was just masking it, just like he was masking everything else.

"You don't sleep well at all do you?" she said to him as they turned onto the main road that led into the heart of the island. Sora shook his head a little.

"But it doesn't matter, I am just fine," he added.

"As always, right?" said Kairi with a hint of annoyance. It wasn't that she was annoyed at Sora, rather she was annoyed at how he seemed to think that he could handle everything alone. She knew for a fact that it was not possible for anyone to handle things on their own. Somewhere along the line there was someone beside them to support them and keep them going. In the case of Sora there were many people, but he seemed to shy away from each and every one of them. Sora turned to look at Kairi.

"I thought you weren't going to try to poke into my personal life?" he said.

"I wasn't. I'm just a little concerned about you, okay? Is it not allowed for a friend to be worried about you?" she retorted. Sora took a deep breath.

"Listen, Kairi. It isn't that I don't appreciate everything my friends do for me, yourself included..." - at this Kairi smiled on the inside - "...but I have my reasons for being who I am and how I am. There really isn't anything that any of you can help me with," he explained. By this time they were entering the town centre and people were bustling around, going about their business.

"Here's a question Sora. How do you know, if you haven't told anyone anything? Maybe we CAN help. Even if in a small way," she huffed. Sora shook his head, regretting his decision to let Kairi be his partner.

"You cannot help. Now are we going to find a place to discuss our project or not?" he said sharply, his patience finally wearing out. Kairi bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying anything else that could really push Sora to the limit. She had promised not to butt into his private affairs, and yet here she was doing exactly that.

"Fine fine, let's find someplace to sit down. But not a library, it's too quiet there," she said. Sora nodded a bit.

"There's a coffee shop just down the end of this road. It's got fairly large tables and won't be too busy at this time of day," he said, pointing down the road. Just as quickly as his anger had seemingly bubbled up, it had melted away and the impassive Sora was back. Kairi smiled a little. Unlike Sora, she was still annoyed about the fact that Sora didn't share anything. Maybe he didn't trust anyone enough to share?

"Sounds good to me. Lead the way," she said. Sora nodded again and led Kairi to the coffee shop.

* * *

When they entered the shop Kairi felt her annoyance evaporate, the aromas of the coffee and hot chocolate cheering her up.

"Mmmm... smells good here," she muttered. Sora didn't say anything at all, instead finding a comfortable place to sit and settling in. Kairi sat down opposite him. Her first thought was to sit next to him, but she felt that this may be again pushing it a little too far. She was learning quickly that being a friend with Sora was not the same as being a friend with anyone else. There were limits to his friendship, and she had to learn to respect them. As Sora took out a notepad, Kairi looked around the shop. The room was L-shaped, with the counters near the entrance, which was glass fronted. The floor was of a gripped laminate, and each table was actually placed on a rug for more comfort. The lighting was warm, giving the entire shop an aura of calm, whilst the tables were all made from wood, most likely oak from what Kairi could tell. This was a proper coffee shop, not one of those cheap outlets with the plastic tables and paper cups. Kairi liked this place a lot. Deciding that she'd spend a lot of her time here when she needed to study, she watched a waitress approached their table. Her eyes glanced at Sora, who was looking for something in his backpack, and then at Kairi. With a typical customer service style smile, she asked Kairi for her order.

"Um... What's really good here?" asked Kairi, unsure of the menu.

"Well if you like coffee I'd recommend the creamy latte, or if you prefer something with chocolate, a smooth mocha would be something you'd like. Of course, we do beverages without coffee too, so if you want tea or a hot chocolate we can do that too. Our peppermint chocs are quite popular," said the waitress. Kairi thought for a moment.

"What about a peppermint latte?" she asked. The waitress looked at Kairi and smiled, this time a proper smile.

"I think we can arrange that for you. What size?" she asked.

"Medium please," said Kairi. The waitress nodded and walked off. Kairi looked at her go, confused as to why she hadn't asked Sora.

"Sora, didn't you want a drink?" she asked. Sora nodded.

"I'll go get the waitress back," said Kairi, starting to get up from her seat. Sora lifted his hand.

"It's okay, they know what I want already," he explained. Kairi looked at him.

"You mean to say you don't ever order anything different when you come here?" she asked. Shaking his head, Sora took out the pen that he was looking for and made a neat little scribble in the corner of the page to make sure the ink flowed.

"Why not?" asked Kairi as she reached into her own bag for a notepad and pens. Sora shrugged, something that Kairi had noticed he did often.

"I like my drink, so I don't really feel like ordering anything else," he simply said. Kairi didn't bother questioning further. Instead, she showed Sora the notes that she had made in her book during the evening yesterday. Sora looked at them carefully, analysing each idea quickly in his head. At the same time he felt a little embarrassed that he hadn't actually written any of his ideas down, instead waiting to run them past Kairi today. Normally he would have just picked an idea and got to work with it, but he knew that when working with someone else it was very important that the whole team had input before a decision was made. He looked at the fourth idea down on the notepad and tapped it.

"I like this one... RC planes," said Sora. "But how do we make it more exciting?"

"Hmmm... I don't know, won't this be difficult to make as it is?" commented Kairi. Sora closed his eyes for a moment to think about the project. For them to be able to successfully make this work, it would mean building a lightweight shell which could actually glide, attach some motors to it with propellers, and then figure out how to make it remote controlled.

"Well for the RC part, we could just buy a remote controller and stick the receiver in the plane. It shouldn't be too hard to wire up the propeller to that. All we would need to worry about is balancing the plane," he said after opening his eyes again. He liked the idea, but it did seem a little simple for his liking.

"Well, what ideas do you have?" asked Kairi. Maybe the RC plane wasn't the best idea. Sora looked at Kairi.

"Well, I haven't written it down, but I was thinking about building some sort of robot that we can control with a computer. Maybe have it so that it can do some tasks, or something like that?" he said. Kairi nodded in support of that idea.

"But again, is it going to be as difficult as it needs to be?" she asked. Sora shook his head slightly, uncertain.

"I'm not sure. But we could always make it more and more complex. Surely having it do different tasks like lift other objects and move them would count as advanced?" he pondered over the thought, nodding a thank you to the waitress who had returned with the drinks.

"What did you get then?" asked Kairi. Sora took a sip and smiled a little at the taste.

"Peppermint hot chocolate," he said. Kairi smiled and noted that in her head. Even though she was going to avoid asking Sora certain questions, she did want to learn as much as she could about him.

"You like mint, too?" she asked. It was a simple enough question and she was sure Sora wouldn't hide something as silly as that. Surely enough, Sora nodded and took another sip.

* * *

The next half hour passed with the two teenagers trying to settle on an idea. So far, despite the positive start, they hadn't really managed to come up with something they both liked. A few ideas bordered on dangerous so they tried to avoid them. During the conversations, Kairi had managed to slip in a few questions about Sora, but nothing that would really annoy him. She'd managed to learn that he loved the colour blue, the ocean and the stars and peppermint hot chocolate. He also was once a stranger on this island and Namine, the blonde haired girl who scared Kairi on her first day at school, was Soras first friend here.

"So, do you like her?" asked Kairi with a sly smile. Sora looked at her with a confused look. He had never been asked that question before. He wasn't even sure what it meant to like someone in the way that Kairi meant. He frowned a little, unsure how to answer the question.

"She's my best friend here," he said after a moment. Kairi looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"That doesn't answer the question, now does it?" Sora shrugged. He had no better way of answer the question.

"That's all I have though. It's the best answer I can give," he explained. "Telescope."

"What?" It was now the turn of Kairi to look confused. She was pretty certain that Sora had just said the word 'telescope', but she couldn't figure out if she misheard or Sora was partly insane. Sora tapped the notepad.

"Telescope. That's what we can make. You said that you like watching the stars too, right?" he asked.

"Aaah, yeah I do. That sounds like a good idea, but can't we just buy one?"

"We'll make a different kind of telescope... how about we make a liquid mirror?" suggested Sora. Kairi had never heard of such a mirror.

"Um... liquids fall and ripple and everything. How would that work?" she asked.

"Not sure, but that could be the whole idea of the project. To see if liquid mirrors can be made and if they are better than normal mirrors in telescopes," he replied. Already his mind was focussed on the task, wondering how he could solve the problem of liquid being terrible at staying still. He knew from all the days he had watched the ocean that water was a fantastic reflector and when the ocean was still it looked as if there was a second world under the surface, mirroring his world.

"Hey Sora, Kairi!" Sora looked up to see Riku standing near him. He smiled his 'hello' smile at the taller boy.

"Hey Riku, how are you?" he asked. Kairi moved over to let Riku sit down, which he did so with a smile.

"Not too bad, thanks. Wakka really sucks at coming up with project ideas though. I was thinking about making a self contained weather system, but he thinks it may be too difficult. Head is too much into blitzball, you know," replied Riku. Kairi giggled a little. From what she had seen of Wakka, blitzball was his life. Until she came here she had never heard of it, but it seemed to be extremely popular on this particular set of islands. Back in the Radiant Garden, her hometown, sports with balls were not all that popular. It was all about athletics there. Over here there seemed to be quite a mix though. Riku looked at Kairi as she giggled.

"It's true, I'm not kidding around at all. Anyway, you two come up with any ideas?" he asked. Sora turned his notepad around and tapped on the paper to indicate the last idea that he had just written down. Riku let out a whistle as he read the plan.

"Sounds fairly tough," he commented before turning back to Kairi. "Sora is known for doing the tougher projects, so don't be afraid to tell him that this one is too hard if you think it is."

"Thanks, Riku. But this one is just fine by me. I'm sure I can keep up with this smarty here," she replied. Sora opened his mouth to retaliate but thought better of it. Now that Riku was here, he didn't need to talk as much. Though he was thinking about asking Kairi about where she was from, since he hadn't asked her that yet.

"Well, we've had Sora, Namine and Xion as the smarty pants of the class. Now it looks like we're going to have a fourth." Kairi pouted. She wasn't a smarty pants as far as she knew. Riku laughed.

"I'm kidding Kairi, we don't tease the smart ones in our class. It's just mean, and besides I think if anyone teases any of them they would probably end up badly hurt. Xion can really kick hard, and Sora... well I wouldn't get in his way, right Sora?" Sora shook his head a little, as he watched the conversation shift focus to him.

"I don't hurt people unless they give me a very good reason," he said quietly. Kairi thought she felt the air grow a little cold as she said that. It sounded like the boy sitting opposite her was dangerous if provoked. She decided to ask him another question.

"How many times have you hurt people?" she asked. Sora looked at her and then at Riku.

"Once," he said, but did not elaborate. Kairi decided not to ask any more about that.

"Anyway, back to projects. Weather system? Does that sound too hard?" asked Riku, changing the subject back to healthier topics.

"Should be doable, make a little mountain with a stream, see what happens," said Sora, giving his input as he always did when his friends asked for help. "Why don't you add a little fun into it by trying to make clouds inside a room too, just for show," he suggested, turning his notepad back towards him. Riku grinned; that idea sounded so typically Sora, and it was a great one.

"Definitely going to do that now that you've mentioned it," said Riku as he stood up. "Now I just have to find Wakka and tell him what needs to be done." Sora nodded and raised his hand to wave Riku off.

"See ya, Riku," said Kairi happily, waving him off in a more energetic fashion than Sora. He waved back at the two of them and slipped out of the coffee shop, picking up his drink on the way out. Kairi watched until Riku was out of sight, then turned back to Sora who was scribbling on his notepad with a pencil. Kairi looked at what he was doing and smiled.

"Drawing the coffee shop I see," she said. Sora stopped and looked at her, for a moment having forgotten that she was there. He had been without company in this shop many times before, and so he wasn't used to having someone else with him. Quietly he turned over a page, back to the notes that he was making. Kairi watched him do that, her smile still on her face. It seemed that even small things like other people seeing him drawing were enough to make him uncomfortable. She wondered why this was, but she didn't question him. After his little outburst earlier, she didn't want to anger him further. Though in all honesty she did not even know if she had actually angered him in any way at all.

"So what's your story?" Kairi looked up when Sora spoke.

"What?" she asked, not sure if she had heard him properly, for the second time.

"Your story, what made you come here?" he asked. Kairi tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her left ear and smiled.

"Moved here with my dad's work. Not sure why they sent him here, I mean there was plenty to do back at Radiant Garden," she said. Sora tilted his head, waiting for her to tell him more. For some reason the name Radiant Garden was slightly familiar to him. He wasn't sure if it was a place that his parents had once mentioned to him. The name had more than a passing familiarity to it. Maybe he'd visited it before when he was small. Kairi thought about withholding the information from Sora, that way he'd be more curious about her and maybe would tell her some things in return, but she felt that it would be quite unfair for her to do so.

"My dad used to work as a historical researcher. There is a lot of history in Radiant Garden, or so I am told," she said.

"What do you mean, so you are told?" asked Sora. Normally he wouldn't be asking questions, but he found himself interested in learning more about this girl. Kairi sighed a little.

"Well... I cannot remember much from more than a few years ago," she said sadly. "I mean, I have a few memories, but they are fragmented and confused..."

Sora looked at the girl with newfound curiosity. He studied her smiling face carefully. Kairi giggled as she watched Sora. She wasn't sure what he was doing by staring at her, but it looked quite funny.

"Um... Soraaaaa?" she waved a hand in front of his face. He blinked but kept looking at her. Kairi looked at him. This time there was something different. His face gave away a deep pain over something, but it was so subtle Kairi wouldn't have noticed it if he wasn't looking directly at her. She looked back, unable to find something to really say.

"I... don't remember my past either," he said quietly. Kairi looked at him as understanding dawned upon her.

"You don't know your own secrets, do you?" she asked him, genuinely concerned for him. Sora shook his head, but Kairi did not know if that meant 'No I don't' or 'No, I do'. Suddenly Kairi didn't see a sixteen year old teenager, but someone much younger. Someone who, like her, had forgotten the past and with it something important. Kairi smiled and put her hand on Sora's to reassure him. He slowly pulled his hand back, which told Kairi that he wasn't going to talk about anything. But it was a start, and that was important to both her and him. For her, it let her know that there was someone that she could talk to and he would understand. For Sora, she felt that it was a sign that he would open up to his friends.

"Don't worry Sora, it'll be okay. You'll see," she said with a reassuring smile. Sora nodded slightly and quietly packed up his bag, deep in thought now. Kairi once again was forced to do nothing but watch him with concern as he looked around the coffee shop, seemingly lost. Finally he turned to Kairi and smiled a little.

"Well, at least we got the project plan sorted. Eraqus should be happy with this on Monday. Want me to walk you back home?" he asked. Kairi looked at him and shook her head.

"No, thank you. I told Xion I would meet her after we finished. She wants to show me the town. Do you want to come?"

Sora shook his head, he didn't fancy wandering around the town as the girls chatted and popped into every store they could find.

"I've got other things to do," he said. "But thank you, I'd say next time, but I don't really go out and about," he explained. Kairi stood up and poked Sora playfully.

"Well, I'm going to change that," she said as they walked towards the exit, leaving some money on the table to pay for the drinks. Once outside, Kairi turned towards the left and Sora towards the right.

"I'll see you later," she said to him as she set off to meet Xion. Sora nodded in reply and quietly strode off in the other direction. Kairi started walking, but then felt that she should turn around to see where Sora was going. By the time she had done so though, Sora had disappeared. Kairi sighed and turned back towards the centre of town. How he did it was a complete mystery to her. But it was really cool.

* * *

Sora walked out of the old town and up one of the many cobblestone roads that led into the hillier areas. He had to talk to someone now, and there was only one person he wanted to talk to. Only one thing was on his mind: _Find Namine_

* * *

_07/05/2014: Minor edit to correct incorrect word usage_


	6. Chapter V

**_Alright, here is chapter 5 of Two of A Kind, or chapter 6 depending on if you called the first chapter a chapter!_**

**_Before I start, I would like to thank PurgeJuls and KnightEstoc for their kind reviews, and I hope that this chapter lives up to the standards of the others. I would also like to thank YOU as the reader for reading this story. I hope you enjoy!_**

**_After this chapter I will be reviewing my previous chapters, so any spelling/grammar errors should be rectified!_**

**_Enjoy!_**

* * *

Chapter V

Kairi was really glad that Xion was her friend. If you didn't know her, you would be very cautious of her because she seemed like someone who was easily angered. But after a week, Kairi had found that she was very kind and plenty of fun to be with. Besides, Sora seemed to be someone who picked his friends very carefully and as such that meant that Xion must have been special in some way. So far Xion had showed Kairi the shopping centre, and were all the best shops were located. The little stalls that lined some of the alleys were really interesting as well. Xion had pointed out that they often sold very special items that you couldn't find in any of the shops, like rare necklaces. But Kairi had also been warned that they were very expensive, and some of the items were rumoured to hold mystical powers, something that she found highly amusing.

"I'm serious," Xion had said as Kairi giggled in disbelief. "Be very careful if you ever choose to buy any of these items!"

After that, Xion had shown Kairi the park that was on the edge of the town centre, which apparently was one of the most relaxing places to bide time. As they sat on the swings, Xion talked about things to do on the island. Apparently most people owned small boats which they then used to row out in to the two uninhabited islands. There they would spend their days and just enjoy the nature, instead of the built up areas of the main islands.

"We'll go there, maybe next week if you want," said Xion. Kairi nodded and smiled at the black haired girl.

"Sounds good! Uh... does Sora come as well?" she asked a little timidly. Xion giggled.

"Any particular reason why you are asking?" she asked with a smile. Kairi shook her head.

"No no, just curious because he said that he didn't really go out and about, with people I guess," explained Kairi. "So I was wondering if he goes out occasionally with you guys." Xion nodded slowly, understanding why Kairi was asking.

"He's been out with us a few times, but less and less nowadays. I think the last time he really came out with everyone was a couple of years ago," she said, thinking about this fact. It really had been a long time since she had seen Sora outside of school, hanging out with all his friends together. Perhaps it was about time that someone asked him to join them again. It would be a lot of fun if he did join them, as he added a completely different personality to the group and he was liked by everyone.

"What's was he like then? You know when he went out with you guys?" asked Kairi as she started to swing, keeping fairly low so that she could talk to Xion and listen, who wasn't swinging yet.

"Sora? Well, I don't know... I suppose he is as he has been these past few years. I mean, he enjoyed himself, did take part in the games and things, but he wasn't like too different from what you normally see him like," answered Xion thoughtfully. Kairi picked up on one part of what Xion said and stopped swinging to look at her.

"Past few years? So he wasn't always a miserable kid?" she asked. Xion laughed.

"Sora isn't miserable, though sometimes he may seem it. He's just... unique. And no, when we were younger he was such a hyper boy. It's funny, but whenever any of us see him, we still see that hyperactive eight year old instead of the contemplative sixteen year old. I remember once we had this school end of year party... it was his first year here and he was so happy that it was coming up to the summer holidays. And when the day ended he ran out of the class so quickly and ploughed straight into Cid Highwind, who wasn't the headmaster of our current school. The force that Sora hit him at actually made him fall over," Xion paused to laugh again, remembering the incident as if it was yesterday. "Poor Sora was so scared that he'd floored a teacher, he ran to the nearest tree and climbed up it to hide. It took Mr Highwind about half an hour to get him out of the tree and explain that it was okay!"

Kairi laughed at Xion's story, hardly believing that she was talking about the same Sora that Kairi thought she knew a little about.

"Wow... I didn't think Sora would be that hyper," she commented as Xion started to swing. Kairi followed suit and timed herself so that they would roughly be at the same place in their swings at the same time. Xion smiled, but this time the smile was slightly more sad.

"Yeah, it's strange to think about those days when Sora was the life of all of our friends," she said. For the next few moments they swung in silence, listening to the various noises around them. Kairi smiled at the sound of young children playing and frowned every time an aeroplane would pass overhead, disrupting the peaceful nature of the park. She closed her eyes and let herself swing higher, until she was almost at the peak of swings arc. It was at this moment that she had a crazy thought.

"Hey, Xion?" she called out, not really sure where Xion was in relation to her.

"Yes?" came the reply from somewhere below and behind her. Kairi grinned to herself.

"Ever jumped off a swing at the highest point?" she asked her.

"Yup, but not from as high as you're swinging!" replied Xion, her voice now higher and somewhere in front of Kairi. Kairi, still grinning, opened her eyes and looked at where she expected to land. It was clear and the landing looked soft enough. If it was stone she wouldn't have even dared to try it, but the grass looked soft enough to land upon.

"Here goes!" she cried, pushing her body off the swing as it reached its highest point. Xion looked up at the crazy redhead, partly worried that she would end up breaking her leg and partly in awe that she had even dared to jump off from that height. For Kairi, this was the closest sensation she had had to being able to fly. She quickly looked back as the swing fell away from her and then down at Xion, whose face showed a mix of worry and amazement. Kairi giggled as she started to fall out of the sky. She heard a few gasps from some of the other children who were playing in the park. Xion watched as Kairi gracefully landed a half dozen meters away from the swing, her red hair falling all around her face as she let her body absorb the impact by following through into a crouch. A few seconds later she dusted herself off and stood up, a massive grin on her face. Turning to face Xion, she started to laugh a carefree and infectious laugh, which soon had Xion laughing too. The black haired girl walked over to Kairi and shook her head slowly.

"That was crazy, you could have hurt yourself badly!" she said, though she was laughing. Kairi put her hand on Xion's shoulder and looked directly at her.

"But I didn't, did I? And that's the all important difference," Kairi managed to say this with a straight face before she burst out giggling again. Xion lightly pushed her new friend.

"Are you sure that you're not related to Sora?" she asked as the two walked away from the playground and further into the park, where there were fields of lush green grass and sports courts. Kairi nodded.

"Definitely not related to him, why?"

"It's just that that jump would be something that Sora would have done, you know if he was hyperactive," explained Xion. Kairi laughed again; today was turning out to be a very happy day, despite the little annoyance with Sora in the morning. Careful to avoid the people playing sports, the two girls cut across the grass and onto a dusty path that ran through the entire park. Palm trees lined the path throughout almost its entire length, highlighting the fact that they were on an exotic island, as if the sound of the sea in the distance, the bright sunshine and heat, and the seagulls that soared over wasn't enough of a clue.

"Maybe I'll try to tempt Sora into doing that," said Kairi. Xion shook her head again.

"Good luck with that, Kairi. It's probably going to take you all your life to get him to do that!"

"Hey, Xion, Kairi!" The two girls stopped to see who was calling them. A boy with spiky blonde hair, wearing a cream jacket, made his way towards them from across the grass.

"Heya Roxas," said Xion with a smile.

"Hello," said Kairi when he approached. Roxas smiled at them both.

"How's it going?" he asked, as they started walking again, up towards the highest part of the park.

"Not too bad. Just got a bit of that project plan out the way this morning, then started showing Kairi around the place," replied Xion. "We've finally found someone who has the potential to be more carefree than Sora," she added. Roxas looked at Kairi.

"Well well well, what did you do?" he asked. Kairi looked at Roxas and grinned.

"Nothing really, I just jumped off a swing," she replied. Roxas chuckled and looked at Xion again.

"Really Xion? She jumped off a swing and you think she has the potential to be more carefree than Sora?" he said, mocking her. "Wait until she knocks a teacher down, then we'll say that perhaps she has the potential." Kairi giggled; it seemed like Sora's incident with Cid Highwind had stuck in the minds of a lot of people. She wondered if Cid remembered it, but she wasn't going to ask him. He was her headmaster and she didn't even know the man.

"She jumped off from the top of the swing, landed about six metres away, not hurt in the slightest," said Xion, defending her case. Roxas let out an impressed whistle.

"Not bad, not bad at all. So... as carefree as our old pal Sora eh?" he said. Xion grinned, having won her case. Kairi smiled shyly, not really enjoying the attention even though it was just her friends.

"We should pit you and Sora against each other to see who can do the craziest thing." Roxas was sure that Sora would win, but it would be nice to see. Not that Sora would ever take part in such an activity. But... maybe he could find a way of tricking him into it. Roxas smiled to himself and tried to devise a plan in which he would set up the challenge. His plans were immediately scuppered by Kairi though.

"No way! I'm not going to do that! I was only playing around on the swings, I can't do anything else!" she exclaimed, waving her hands in front of her. Roxas and Xion laughed and soon enough Kairi joined them. As they walked, Kairi happily skipped between them. She was really glad that she had made friends as great as these.

A knock at the door disturbed Namine from her drawing. She heard her mother answer it, so she got back to her drawing. A few seconds later though, she was interrupted by a call from downstairs.

"Namine, you've got a friend over!" came the soft voice of her mother, floating up the stairs. Namine wondered who it could be. She didn't recall anyone saying that they would be coming over, but she could have just not been paying attention.

"Who is it?" she called back, neatening her pile of unfinished drawings, just in case it was one of the girls and they wanted to talk in her room.

"Sora," replied her mother.

"Oh okay... wait, who?" Namine was sure that her mother had got her friends muddled up. More likely it was Roxas who probably needed help with his project plans. She threw on a light cardigan and walked into the upstairs corridor. Leaning her torso over the banister, she saw that her mother had not got them mixed up at all; Sora, who she hadn't had over to her house since they were ten years old, was indeed standing in the downstairs hallway, patiently waiting.

"I'll be right down!" called Namine, feeling very confused, flustered and at the same time happy to see her friend. Sora looked up at her and smiled a little uncomfortably.

"That's okay, take your time. I can come back another time," he said and turned for the door again.

"Sora, you hold it right then! Don't move," ordered Namine, quickly running back into her room to change into something that was more appropriate for company, especially when it was one of her best friends. A few seconds later she dashed out of her room and down the stairs two at a time. Seeing Sora, she started giggling.

"Alright, you can move," she said when she stopped giggling. Sora, who was still facing the door, turned around.

"I see you still take things literally," giggled Namine as she led Sora into the living room. Sora shrugged and looked around. He hadn't been here in many years, but the place was basically the same as he remembered. The walls had been repainted and the carpet had been changed. It made the room look a little more cosier than he recalled. The black carpet did make it look smaller though, but the lighter coloured walls made up for that.

"Sit down, silly," said Namine. Sora smiled a little and did as he was instructed, sitting down on the edge of the sofa nearest to the window. Namine smiled warmly and sat down next to him.

"I see you picked your normal spot," she commented. Sora nodded.

"Not sure if you can call it my normal spot though... I haven't been here in years," he said, a trace of sadness in his voice. Namine looked at him, her smile replaced with a look of curiosity. She hadn't heard sadness in his voice in a very long time. Trying to cheer him up, she nudged him lightly.

"Hey... to me that will always be your normal spot, okay?" she told him. Sora smiled a little more, but the sad trace was still in his voice.

"Thanks Namine," he replied. Namine nodded and placed her hands in her lap, leaning back on the sofa gently.

"I think this is the one time where you may answer this question: what's on your mind?" asked Namine. It was obvious from when he had walked in that there was something really bothering him, but this was the first time that he had actually seemed to want to confide in someone. Sora looked at Namine, second guessing his decision for a moment.

"It's nothing, I just felt like coming to see you, that's all," he lied. Namine shook her head and smiled at him.

"Sora, you don't lie, so when you try you are abysmal at it. You didn't just want to see me, because you see me in school all the time... what's wrong?" said Namine. Sora sighed and looked down at his knees, his hands clasped tightly together. Namine got up and went out of the room for a moment. Sora took it as an opportunity to collect his thoughts and feelings. He really thought it would be easier to talk to Namine than anyone else, but it was difficult even knowing where to begin. All these years he'd distanced himself from the friendships he had, and yet they had all stuck by him, Namine most of all. He felt as though he didn't even have the right to talk to her, as if by distancing himself he had lost the ability to count on her as a friend. Knowing Namine though, he had no doubts that she would always be there for him, even if this incident were to happen twenty years from now. That was just the kind of person Namine was, always there for her friends. He turned as he heard Namine approach once again, carrying two glasses of orange juice.

"Come on," she said softly to him, making a gesture with her head for him to follow her. He stood up and followed Namine upstairs. From the other room, Namine's parents watched Sora following their daughter upstairs, but they knew that there was nothing at all for them to be worried about. Sora was possibly the nicest of any teenager they had ever known, and Namine always told them about how she would worry about him. It seemed that finally Sora had decided to talk to Namine and try to sort a few things out.

Upstairs, Namine led Sora into her room. Despite knowing each other for years, and the fact that Sora used to come here often, Sora had never actually been inside her room. He looked around. Almost everything in the room was generally of a really light shade or white. The walls were white, the carpet was snow white, the bed sheets were white, her desk was white. To contrast nicely, some of the other furniture was dark, and it helped stop the room from being a little too overwhelming in whiteness.

"Wow... it's so light," commented Sora, not really finding much else to say. He knew that Namine had a fixation with the colour white, hence the reason she normally wore white dresses, but he never realised that it was so deep. Namine carefully placed the two glasses of juice on her bedside table.

"Thank you," she said. "I know it's a lot of white, but it sort of helps you know... at night when I am sleeping everything is still light. So I never feel like it's dark..."

Sora nodded a little, remembering that Namine had once told him that she was afraid of darkness. He walked around the room, feeling as though he was intruding, not only on the privacy of his friend, but also on the colours of the room. His navy blue jacket and red shorts did not really fit in well in this room. Stopping when he reached the far wall, he looked at the pictures that had been stuck up to the it. It was easy to tell which ones were the older ones, since the drawing standard wasn't as good; it was one of these older pictures that Sora stopped on and looked at for a long while. It showed both himself and Namine standing next to each other in a park, both with huge grins across their faces. Namine had been very careful when she coloured it in, making sure that the colours did not go past the outlines. Underneath it she had written the words 'Sora + Namine = Friends Forever'. Sora read the words and sighed. This was the friend that he had stayed away from. He felt like a horrible person for doing so all these years, and a tear started to form. He coughed and quickly wiped the tear away before turning around to face Namine.

"Nice set of pictures," he said to her, noticing that there was a pile of paper on her desk. The top one looked like it was an unfinished drawing of all her friends together. Sora easily spotted the partially coloured Kairi; the red hair was unmistakable. Namine patted the bed beside her, letting Sora know that he could sit down. As he did so, Namine smiled at him.

"Thank you. I find that they help with memories... they sort of chain all of them together you know," she explained, handing Sora one of the tumblers. Taking it out of Namine's small hands and thanking her, he sipped his juice slowly. For the next few seconds, there was nothing but the sound of two teenagers sipping juice and quietly breathing. Namine wanted to ask Sora once again about what was wrong, but she knew that he would start talking very shortly anyway, so she just waited. Right on cue, Sora opened his mouth.

"I don't know how you put up with me all these years," he said quietly, his voice filled with guilt. Namine giggled, despite the negative feelings that Sora was having.

"Best friends don't need to put up with each other, they are there for each other no matter what," she said, taking another sip of juice. Sora smiled, only this time it wasn't one of those small fake smiles that he normally did, but rather it was one of the real smiles that Namine had only seen a long time ago.

"It suits you, you know."

Sora looked at her, confused.

"The smile... it really suits you," she finished. Sora nodded a little.

"I suppose it does; smiles suit everyone," he said. Namine lightly nudged him again.

"You know what I meant..." Sora nodded, knowing exactly what Namine meant. He felt a little more relaxed now that he'd been here a little while. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Namine.

"I think it's about time you knew why I don't keep company with people anymore... and what happened when I was ten," he said slowly. Namine turned to face him, showing that she was fully listening to him. Sora took another deep breath, and told her everything.


	7. Chapter VI

_**First of all, I am sorry for this late update! I didn't want to rush this chapter in the short time that I have had lately, so I waited until when I could spend more time writing it! I want to thank DarkAceKirby for his review, and a massive thank you to lordibau for the in-depth review of my story so far, as well you guys for reading it. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint, though once again it was a little difficult to write it!**_

_**Enjoy!**_

* * *

**Chapter VI**

_"Dear me in the future,_

_ The more I talk to people about Sora, the less I think I understand about him. From what everyone else describes him as, it doesn't seem to match the person I walk to/back from school with! Xion (the one with the short black hair) says that Sora was a crazy kid when he was smaller. Roxas seems to see the same, and even when I talked to Riku he said the same! I really want to know what happened to make Sora the way he is now, but I'm going to try my best not to constantly bug him about it. I want him to be my friend and tell me willingly._

_Also, he mentioned that he couldn't remember his past, just like me! I'd say that it was that fact that bugged him, but I can't figure out why or how it would make him so robotic... _

_ Ah well, I better go to sleep now. This weekend has gone by so quickly and it's back to school again tomorrow. At least it isn't as boring as my old one!_

_Goodnight me in the future!"_

Monday came around as if the weekend had not even happened. It was the same old routine for everyone, except a certain blonde.

"Hey, Namine? Are you okay?" Roxas looked at Namine and thought she seemed a little distant today. Though she was the least talkative of all his friends, except Sora, he still felt that something was wrong.

"Yeah, I'm fine Rox, don't worry about it," she said, snapping out of her thoughts and smiling at him. Truth was, ever since talking to Sora she hadn't been able to get her best friend off her mind. She was partly right in her thoughts of what was wrong, but she hadn't realised how deep it really was.

You sure?" asked Roxas. Namine nodded.

"Yup, completely 100% sure! My mind is just wandering off," she partly lied, making sure that his concerns were nullified. Roxas shrugged, not completely convinced that Namine was telling the whole truth, but he let it drop.

"Okay... if you say so," he said as he saw two figures approaching the gates. He chuckled as they walked in.

"You know what Nam, Sora and Kairi actually look really good together," he commented, making sure he was still out of Sora's earshot. Namine giggled a little. It did seem that way, but she knew that Sora didn't think of Kairi like that at all. And Kairi didn't even know Sora well enough to make that kind of decision.

"Don't think that'll happen," she said as the two walked up to them.

"Morning, Sora! Morning, Kairi!" greeted Roxas enthusiastically. Sora smiled his small smile at Roxas and Namine. In contrast, Kairi had a wide grin across her face.

"Morning Roxas, Namine!" she said, almost more enthusiastically than Roxas, but not quite. Namine looked at Sora, their eyes locking for a brief second.

_'It's alright, I won't tell anyone.'_

_'Thanks Namine'_

The words didn't need to be spoken between the two friends. Namine knew how difficult it was for Sora to even talk to her, so she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that she never told another soul.

"How was your weekend, Sora?" asked Roxas. Sora looked at him and thought for a moment; he did this a lot to allow him to carefully choose what he told everyone.

"It was okay actually. Managed to do a lot of research for the project that me and Kairi chose, you?"

"Was pretty good. Ended up partnering Xion and Namine, so we're going to have to work really hard to make our project better than everyone else's!" replied Roxas, looking at Namine who smiled.

"Yup, so you better make sure that you don't slack," added Xion, who had just arrived with Riku and Tidus. The others laughed, except Sora who just smiled.

"Looks like Roxas is going to have to work hard this term," said Riku. "I'd feel sorry for you, but you're so lazy it'd do you good to work hard for once!" Roxas rolled his sleeves up.

"Excuse me girls," he said as he dove towards Riku. Kairi giggled. It had been almost a week since she had met all her friends, and in that time she had seen Roxas and Riku play fight almost every single day. Following all the rest of her friends that were there, Kairi too took a step back, to avoid being caught up in the tangle.

"You'd think that after all these years, they would calm down..." pondered Namine. Kairi nodded.

"Just how long have they been at it exactly?" she asked as Riku pinned Roxas to the floor, a triumphant look on his face.

"Oh, since they were about six, if I remember it correctly. Started over some colour pencils, and they decided that the only way to solve it was by finding out who was stronger. Ten years later, and it seems that they still haven't figured it out," Namine said, watching as Roxas shoved Riku off. Xion laughed and helped her friend up. Kairi watched, amused at the fact that the two had been play fighting this way for all those years. She wondered how different it would be if she had actually grown up here like they had. Would she have ended up friends with the likes of Riku and Roxas? If it wasn't for Sora, she wouldn't even know any of them. Speaking of Sora, he had disappeared again while her focus was distracted. Kairi shook her head slightly. Next time she would remember to keep her eyes on him.

* * *

Cid Highwind sat behind his desk, tinkering with a small and old mechanical watch that normally sat in one corner. His seat was situated between his desk and the window. Because of the light that often streamed through, he had another desk on the other side of the room. On this desk he had placed his computer monitors, which allowed him to keep an eye on the schools systems. An engineer at heart, Cid believed that the best way to do something was to do it yourself. There was no point in telling others to do the work if it could be done by himself. He had stuck the policy throughout the entire school, meaning that each one of the teachers that he had employed were people who knew how to practically do something. It didn't matter about the age of the teacher, as long as they were older than the students. For example, the youngest of his teachers was nineteen year old Yuffie, who Cid had known for a few years. She had been at the school during his first year as headmaster, and he had noticed her potential for becoming a physical education teacher. So the day that she finished school he approached her with a job offer. She had spent the first year as the apprentice of Master Eraqus, who was getting older and slowing down. He decided to move into sciences, which was his second strong subject. Cid himself taught a few classes until this year, when he employed a man who was older than he was, but knew quite a significant amount more than he did about computers. Kevin Flynn was happy to take the job for a few years and already had made significant progress with the students, his jovial and laid back nature making him a well liked teacher. So now Cid spent most of his work time sitting in his office as he read reports and tinkered with the systems of the school or his own personal projects, just like he was doing so right now. A knock on his door caught his attention. He stood up and strode over, taking wide steps. Opening the light brown wooden door, he found Master Eraqus standing outside. This was a surprise; Eraqus wasn't one to often visit his office.

"Master Eraqus, please come in," said Cid respectfully. Though he was the headmaster, Eraqus held a special title on the islands, which everyone respected. Eraqus gave a small bow of greeting as he walked in. Cid shut the door again and walked over to one of the desks, which had a flask of hot water and some beverages.

"Tea? Coffee? A drink perhaps?" he said, turning to look at Eraqus who had sat down on one of the thickly padded blue seats that surrounded a small conference table, which was rarely used. Eraqus shook his head slightly, declining any of the offers.

"Perhaps a glass of water?" he asked politely. Cid nodded and went to fill up some water from the water reserve. The water itself was fresh, having been collected from the various streams that flowed down from the hills. Filling two glasses full, he walked back to his science teacher and sat down on a seat opposite him, passing him the water.

"So, what can I do for you?"

Eraqus took a sip of water before speaking.

"Well, I've just been taking down ideas for the science projects and one of them seems to be not very viable at all," he explained as he took a paper out of his white robe and handed it to Cid. Cid himself quickly read the paper, nodding in approval at the idea but also seeing why Eraqus had a problem with it.

"Quite an expensive project, especially if it doesn't turn out well," commented the headmaster, stroking his growing white beard thoughtfully. "Let me guess, this would be Sora's idea?"

Eraqus nodded in confirmation. That boy came up with the most difficult of ideas, not often thinking about what would happen if it could not be done. It was as if Sora felt that everything could be done if he put his mind to it, but he never took into account external influences. He took the paper back from Cid once he had finished reading it and carefully placed it back into his robe.

"Do you think he can do it?" asked Cid, asking for an opinion before he made his decision. Eraqus chuckled a little.

"Sora? I think that he could stop time if he wanted," he replied. Cid chuckled too.

"Well, that kid is crazy, that's for sure. I'll authorise it and see to the payments for the equipment and materials he needs. Who is his partner?"

"The new girl, Kairi."

"Do you think she had cope with this project?"

Eraqus shrugged at that question. He didn't know the girl well enough to make that sort of a determination.

"I think that she has the potential to be able to do it, but only time will tell if she will succeed along with Sora," he said carefully. Cid weighed that fact up as well and decided that he may as well give them a chance.

"Well, let's see what they can do. I'd love to see a working telescope like this. In fact I may supervise this myself," said Cid, the idea making him feel a little younger again. This was the sort of project that he would have enjoyed doing.

"I'll go to inform Sora and Kairi of the good news then," said Eraqus, standing up and heading for the door. As he reached it, he turned around to face Cid again; his face was a lot more serious this time.

"I'm concerned about Sora, Cid... there is definitely something going on that he won't tell anyone," he said, the worry very apparent in his voice. Cid nodded a little, sharing the martial arts masters concerns.

"I know, as am I. The kids got too much on his mind. Just look out for him as best as you can." Cid looked at Eraqus as he nodded before leaving the office, closing the door quietly behind him. If there was anyone who would look after someone, it would be Eraqus.

* * *

"Unusual for you to be here..."

Sora looked at the person addressing him and smiled softly. Namine was right; he didn't often come to the park anymore.

"Just thought I'd revisit some places I haven't been in a long time... this park was the first on the list," he said as the blonde haired girl joined him, sitting down on the swing next to Sora.

"Yeah? Where else are you planning to go to?" she asked, turning to look at him.

"Well... I haven't been to the island that you guys normally go to in a few years, so I thought I'd visit that at some point. I remember there was this path up to the top of the highest hill, and the view was great. Hope the path is still there," he started. Namine nodded and listened as Sora reeled off all the places he planned to visit when he could, but she noticed that he didn't seem to plan on doing any of them with friends.

"Any particular reason why you've suddenly decided to go out and about?" she asked, curious as to why he would be doing this now. She had learnt that Sora always had a reason for whatever he did, and since he had shared a lot with her during the weekend, she was sure that he would explain his sudden urge to revisit old places. Sora shrugged.

"I'm not really sure... after talking to you on Saturday, I just felt that perhaps I should go out and check out some of the old places, you know, see if they've changed." Sora finished his sentence and idly started swinging. Namine watched and smiled as he slowly let himself swing higher and higher, not realising that he was doing so. She remained quiet as to not disturb her friend, who currently seemed to be in a more enjoyable mood. It had been a long time since she had seen him seemingly enjoying himself, or at least it looked that way. The small smiling on his face wasn't like the fake one that he usually gave; it definitely seemed like he was reliving a good time. She also noticed that he was still wearing the simple school uniform so he hadn't been home yet. Namine had already been home to change into some more comfortable attire; the school uniform felt a little too colourful and tight for her liking. But it seemed quite obvious that the choice of clothing wasn't something that was often of the mind of her friend. She kept watching as Sora let himself coast to a stop, having let himself swing fairly high. He looked at Namine and smiled. She returned the smile as he got up and slowly walked off, his form becoming nothing but a silhouette as he walked off in the direction of the now setting sun. Namine knew that he wouldn't mind if she joined him but she decided that it would be better if she still left him alone. Smiling to herself she started to swing, keeping them low as she was a little afraid of heights. Her white dress danced around her legs in the breeze, and her slender hand held onto the chains of the swings carefully. As she looked out to Sora disappearing, she saw him raise a hand in waving goodbye. Namine raised her own and waved him off until he disappeared out of sight down the hill.

* * *

Sora walked back towards his home, his mind feeling a little clearer for the first time in years. His talk with Namine had really helped him to get his mind more focussed; he wondered afterwards why he hadn't thought of talking to her before. She didn't exactly understand what he was going through, but she was still comforting in a way that only Namine could do. Later that night he had had a dream that baffled him a little. He wasn't sure if it was just a culmination of things that had allowed his mind to imagine him as a hero of sorts, or it actually meant something. He didn't see himself as a hero at all but it would have been nice to be fighting for right. As well as that, Sora had once again dreamt of his unknown best friend from his past, who he had realised was a girl. Perhaps it was Namine and his mind was just trying to drive him insane. In any case, now that his thoughts were a little more coherent he was able to try to recall his past with a little more clarity. A few flashes had appeared to him in the past couple of days but, as with the voice of his friend, nothing really made any sense. It was as he walked up the path that led to his hilltop home that he had the clearest of flashbacks so far.

_"You're such a lazy bum Sora! Let's go to the parkkkkkkk!"_

_"But it's so hot outside, I'll burn and then die!"_

_"Don't be silly, I'll protect you!"_

Sora blinked a few times, realising that he had stopped walking. For that instance he had been laying on the grass of a garden, well within the shade of the house that it belonged to. The sky was bright blue overhead and the clouds were lazily moving across it. Sora didn't recognise the place at all, but he didn't get much of a chance to see because someone had obscured his vision by sticking his - her - head in front of his face. He didn't really see much, but the blue-violet eyes were definitely familiar; he had seen similar looking eyes recently but his mind couldn't determine who they belonged to. The tone of voice was also familiar; cheeky and playful but at the same time one that made him feel at home. He shook his head a few times, pushing the memories to the back of his mind. He would deal with them later on, since there really wasn't any point in him frustrating himself if he couldn't find out who it was or what any of it related to. He continued walking, following the path as it gently sloped upwards, his mind wandering to other topics. He was pleased that the project that had been chosen by Kairi and himself had been given the go ahead by Cid, not that he ever doubted that it would. Now came the part where they would have to research before ordering materials to start construction on the project. His mind was suddenly bought to attention by a movement in the shadows, similar to the one he had seen a week ago. This time he was almost certain that he hadn't been imagining it. At the same time, the feeling of familiarity washed over him once more. He couldn't explain it, but he felt as though he knew what was going to happen next. Except it wasn't that. A giggle was heard and Kairi stepped out of the shadows, a wide grin on her face.

"Now I know how to scare you, Sora," she said happily. Sora looked at her and rose an eyebrow.

"I wasn't scared, just cautious," he responded, continuing to walk up towards his home. Kairi fell into step beside him. "Besides, what are you doing here right now?" Kairi shrugged and skipped happily alongside.

"Went home, couldn't find much to do so I thought I'd go for a walk," she said. Sora nodded to show that he was listening. Though he had to admit that before Kairi had stepped out of the shadows he could have sworn he felt that it was something else. His brow furrowed slightly as he tried to understand what he felt. Kairi may have been right when she said he was scared, but it didn't seem like the fear that would cause a person to run away. It was more like a fear that it would be something unpleasant. And that fear was causing the fine hair on his nape to stand on end. Kairi shivered a little.

"It's getting a little bit chilly this evening," she commented, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to warm herself up.

"Yeah... it is," replied Sora, not completely paying attention to the redhead beside him. It wasn't like him at all to feel apprehension, yet here he was becoming increasingly agitated about the current situation. His eyes started to dart from shadow to shadow, scanning them very quickly. And then he saw it: a dark figure moving in the shadows, barely visible except for when it looked at you. Sora stared at it.

"Kairi," he muttered, making sure that she was alongside him.

"What is that?" Her voice was close to his ear, quivering slightly. Sora shook his head; it wasn't worth explaining. He watched as the shadow stayed still, looking around from where it stood. It didn't seem like it was very interested in doing anything else, but Sora unexplainably knew that eventually it would strike. If not now, at another time.

"Whatever you do, do not get close to it. I don't think it's going to do anything right now," he instructed. Kairi nodded and moved closer to Sora, taking strength from his presence. The calmly slipped past the shadow, which turned to watch them as they did so. Sora took a deep breath and slowly let it out. The elders had to be informed. The shadow creatures were back.


	8. Chapter VII

**_A super quick update this time; I found this chapter was a blast to write! Really was quite easy at times, but I'll let you guys judge on the quality! Be aware there may be small spoilers now creeping in, there is a minor one from BBS in here!_**

**_Before you start reading, I'd like to mention PurgeJuls and lordibau; thank you for the reviews! Also, the guest that left the nice review, I'd like to thank you too! And of course I'd like to thank YOU for reading the story!_**

**_Okay, enjoy Chapter Seven of "Two of A Kind"_**

* * *

**Chapter VII**

Sora had decided to wait until the next day to inform anyone about the creature he had seen. After all it had only been one and he didn't want to cause needless worry. For all he knew, that was the only one around; maybe he/she/it had got trapped on the island and just survived for all these years. Nevertheless, it was still important for him to tell somebody about it. He decided that the best person to talk to would be Cid. He knew for certain that Cid had been on the islands for a long time and he wouldn't immediately dismiss anything. So on Tuesday morning, after the now usual walk to school with Kairi, he sat in the headmasters office. Cid was sitting at his desk with a frown on his face after Sora had related the story of the incident the day before. Cid knew that Sora wouldn't just making it up, and if he was missing a lesson to come tell him this, it was very important.

"So let me get this straight," started Cid, doing his best to make heads or tails of what did seem to be an unlikely story. "You both managed to walk past this thing and it didn't make any move towards you?"

"That's right. It just watched us with these glowing yellowish eyes," confirmed Sora, nodding to emphasise his point. Cid stroked his beard carefully again; it was actually quite fun to do that. He knew the story of the infamous shadows that travelled across the world, trying to wreck havoc and cause destruction, but he had never seen one firsthand; nor had he heard of one not attacking when it was given a chance. He thought for a moment as Sora sat patiently on the opposite side of the desk.

"Any idea why it didn't attack?" he asked Sora. Now it was Sora's turn to think for a while. Cid had a very valid point. As far as Sora was concerned, the creature should have melted into the shadows, slide across the ground and struck them. Maybe that was a part of the myth that wasn't true. Or maybe it couldn't for various reasons.

"I really don't know. It definitely knew that we were there, because it turned specifically to watch us as we walked past," mused Sora. Cid didn't like the sound of this. If the stories were true then it should have attacked, but then again it may not have because there was only one of it. This meant that it may be intelligent enough to know when to and when not to attack. The fact didn't bode well for the islands. Cid stood up and walked towards the office door.

"Stay here," he ordered Sora as he walked out. Sora did as he was told, standing up to stretch his legs. He paced around the room slowly, taking a look at the various artefacts that lay upon the desks and the conference table. He only had to wait a few short moments before the headmaster returned, just as he was looking at a sword that hung in a glass case on one of the walls. Sora turned around as Master Eraqus and Yuffie the 'Ninja' followed Cid into the room.

"Hey Sora," chirped Yuffie happily. Even though she was technically a teacher, she liked to make friends with the students and Sora had ended up being one of them. Sora sent a small smile to her, noticing that she wasn't wearing a headband today. Master Eraqus walked over to Sora and put a hand on his shoulder. His eyes showed years of wisdom behind them as he looked down at Sora.

"Cid told us what you saw; I'm going to cut straight to it. What you saw was called a Heartless and if one is here you can be sure that more will follow," explained Eraqus. Sora didn't like the feeling that followed after that. These shadow creatures - Heartless as he now knew them to be - were going to appear all over the island. If they attacked, Sora knew that there would be massive casualties.

"What we're trying to figure out is why they have appeared here," added Yuffie, her eyes on the sword that Sora had been gazing at earlier. Cid gestured to her, indicating that she could take it out the case. With a gleeful look she carefully removed the sword and balanced it delicately on her hands.

"The last time they were here, does anyone know why?" Sora looked from Yuffie to Cid to Eraqus. They all shook their head, but Eraqus spoke.

"Not why they were here, no. But I have encountered similar creatures of darkness before, at my previous abode," he said. Sora looked at him, wanting him to go on. He sighed softly, the memories of what happened during the fighting resurfacing.

"As you are aware, I have the title of a Martial Arts master, hence I am known as Master Eraqus everywhere I go," began the man. His voice became more strained, because for the first time ever he could feel his age properly. "Well, when I was younger, perhaps around twenty years old I was what was called a Keyblade warrior." He paused at Sora's confused look and smiled at him. "Yes, perhaps I should explain what a Keyblade is..." At this, he stepped back and reached out his right hand to the side, opening his palm. A flash of gold light filled the room, dazzling Sora for just a split second before it dissipated. In its place, being firmly grasped by Eraqus, was a strange looking weapon of sorts. Sora looked at it in amazement. It resembled an extremely large old style key, the sort you found in the locks of treasure chests in pirate adventure films. The key was a dull silver, with the handle a brighter silver, with metallic brown parts down the sides. A small chain hung from the bow, silver with a triangular component at the end, in the same metallic brown. To all intents and purposes it just looked like a supersized key. Nothing special at all about it.

"This is a Keyblade," stated Eraqus. Sora understood where the name came from, but he really couldn't see how someone wielding one of those could be a warrior. At the same time he felt as though he had seen one of these 'weapons' before. Yuffie obviously had never seen one of these though, because she put the sword down - Cid growled at it not being put back into the case - and moved towards the Keyblade. Sora looked at it from a different angle. There was definitely something about it that made it seem quite dangerous. But the lack of any sharp edges made Sora wonder how this could be a weapon of any kind. Eraqus seemed to read Sora's mind and shook his head.

"My Keyblade, in its current form, is not capable of impaling any human. However I assure you that if I hit you hard enough with it, it could cause significant damage. But that is not its purpose. Unlike a conventional weapon, a Keyblade has immense magical qualities within it, and because of it you must have certain qualities before you can use one. First of all, to wield such a weapon one must have a strong heart. Secondly, the Keyblade must choose to be with its wielder. Even if a Keyblade is taken from someone, it will not bind unless it finds the person worthy or if it has been intentionally passed down. For example, see what happens when I give my Keyblade to Yuffie," he said, passing his Keyblade to the excited younger girl. She took it in her hands and held it up to examine, only for it to disappear in a flash and reappear in the hand of Eraqus.

"Awwww... that's not fair!" complained Yuffie. She really wanted to get hold of one of these mysterious weapons. Eraqus chose not to comment to her complaint.

"A Keyblade can be a weapon of light or darkness, depending on the heart it is attached too. And of course, depending on the heart the Keyblade will look different too. Its original form is somewhat different to this, but I have seen it in many different forms over the years."

"But what does the Keyblade have to do with our problem?" asked Cid, cutting the lesson short.

"Well you see, the Heartless are attracted to the Keyblades. Regardless of light or dark, for some reason they want to attack anywhere where a Keyblade is present. Of course, since I have been here I have been very careful not to summon my blade at all; in fact this is the first time in years that I have summoned it. It does feel like reuniting with an old friend..." Eraqus let his voice trail off as he examined his weapon, a smile on his face. But once again, Cid interrupted him.

"So the Heartless are here because you are?" he asked. Eraqus snapped out of his thoughts and then shook his head.

"No... if they were, they would have been here years ago. Knowledge of my Keyblade was always in my mind, and if they wanted to attack me they would have done so a long time ago. This is what baffles me," replied Eraqus, looking at Sora. Sora looked back with a blank look on his face. Eraqus carefully studied his face, wondering if Sora would be involved in any of this at all. There was only one way to find out. He extended his arm out towards Sora, handing him the Keyblade. Sora looked at Eraqus, confused.

"Why are you giving me this? I thought it'll just disappear from my hand like it did for Yuffie?" he asked, eyeing the strange weapon that was being offered to him. Eraqus didn't answer, continuing to hold the Keyblade out for Sora to take. Sora looked at Eraqus and slowly took the weapon from the old Master's hand. He waiting for a few seconds, expecting the blade to disappear from his hand but the flash of light did not come. He stared at the blade. It felt extremely familiar in his hand but at the same time a little alien. It was as if he had held a blade like this one before, but not this particular one. But the bigger question was why he seemed to be able to keep hold of the weapon; he didn't recall any particular time when he was given a Keyblade, or even picked one up. Eraqus nodded slowly and turned to Cid, talking quietly. Yuffie sat on the table next to where Sora stood, her face giving away the disappointment she felt in not being able to have such a weapon.

"Wish I could hold one of them," she said wistfully. Sora turned to her and handed the weapon over. A few seconds later it magically reappeared in his hand.

"Not sure why it's doing that," he muttered. Yuffie ruffled his hair; something she knew that he found annoying.

"Ah who cares, Sora! The point is that you can use this strange but awesome weapon! But I'm still the best ninja ever!" she said, cheering up with her little self praise. Sora couldn't argue with her; he had never seen someone move as stealthily as she did. Sora didn't have a chance to agree though; Eraqus had turned to speak to him again.

"It seems as though you have the ability to wield the Keyblade, young Sora. A strong heart for certain. But remember, there is a darkness that lingers in every heart. Make sure that you keep it at bay when fighting." Sora suddenly came to his senses.

"Whoa! Fighting? No no no... I don't fight Master Eraqus!" he cried as he dropped the Keyblade. It clattered onto the ground with a metallic crash before disappearing, only to reappear again in Eraqus' hand. "He's right Eraqus, he's sixteen years old. A sixteen year old should not be told to fight. It's absurd!" said Cid, defending Sora.

"He's not even trained up in martial arts," added Yuffie, putting her hand on Sora's shoulder. The three of them looked at Master Eraqus, who gave away no sign that he were to make Sora fight by force.

"The Keyblade chooses its master. And for some reason it has chosen you. Why? I do not know. But that point is now moot; you have the Keyblade, and whether you wish to fight or not, you will have to. But not here. But this is a very dangerous place to fight. Innocent people could be hurt here. It would be best if we first visited someplace safe, where the only lives that could be lost would be our own," said Eraqus, not bothering to dull the blow about what seemed to be an impending death. Sora looked at him incredulously. Master Eraqus had finally lost his marbles. He wasn't a Keyblade warrior, or whatever else. All he wanted to do was build his new telescope and remember his past. Though now that he thought about it...

* * *

The island mayor was in disbelief. Standing before him was an old man, an aging man, a young woman and a teenage boy. It had been three minutes since he had been informed as to what was going on and the plan that had been set out. In those five minutes none of the five had said a single word; with the standing four just patiently waiting for a response. Sora idly tapped the side of his leg with his index finger. He supposed that the mayor was in a state of utter shock, and was surprised that nobody had bothered to call for a paramedic. Sora finally spoke up, his patience wearing thin.

"Mr Mayor?" he said simply. The mayor looked at him, slowly recovering from the sheer audacity of the four in front of him.

"I should have you thrown out of my office immediately, what with this nonsense of Heartless and fighting and evacuating. What kind of fool do you take me for?!" he finally said angrily. On the contrary, Master Eraqus was as calm as could be.

"Perhaps the foolish thing to do would be to ignore our warnings. We are trying to save your islands, and everyone in them," he said with a measured voice. The Mayor stood up, his slightly oversized form not providing a very imposing figure, though the mayor probably thought otherwise.

"I do not take kindly to your tone, Eraqus. Find me proof of these Heartless and I will not hesitate to protect the islands. But take the word of a child? You're crazy for doing so," he boomed.

"Proof? You would rather wait until a few thousand Heartless start showing by the hour before you think about protecting the islands?!" Cid interjected, his gruff voice echoing through the room.

"I didn't say that. But the word of a child?! Come on Cid, even you would see the stupidity of that notion!" retorted the Mayor. Eraqus raised both his hands up to silence the two men, preventing the conversation from becoming a very heated argument.

"Enough. We are not going to get anywhere by raising voices. Mr mayor, forgive us for intruding and disturbing your day. We will be on our way, but keep an eye out. You don't want to underestimate creatures of darkness," he said, closing the conversation and turning to leave. Cid, Yuffie and Sora followed him out. Once the door to the office was shut, Cid went off like a controlled explosion.

"That stupid, pig headed... What kind of a leader is he?! I just wanted to shove his... who the hell does it think he is?!"

The others let Cid go off on one of his rants as they left the building, walking back towards the school. Sora walked in between Yuffie and Master Eraqus. The Keyblade was very much on his mind, the name echoing through it. What had he done to deserve such an honour or punishment? Yuffie nudged him.

"Hey? Are you okay?" she asked. Despite her arrogant nature, Yuffie had a very kind heart, but you really needed to know her well to see that side of her. Sora nodded a little.

"Yup... just wondering about this Keyblade thingy," he replied. Yuffie placed a hand on his shoulder again as they walked. Sora took a little comfort from her presence. She always had an aura of strength surrounding her, despite her slender frame, which she was very proud of. Naturally a ninja had to be extremely fit and Yuffie was no exception; her body was very flexible and strong for its size; a little taller than Sora was.

"Listen Sora, don't think too much about it. Sometimes things happen and you just have to deal with them. Besides, if you're going to fight I am not missing out on the fun! A chance for me to show these Heartless just how awesome I am! I'll scare them all away with my super moves!" she said, her voice becoming more excited as she thought about fighting off hordes of Heartless with her various weapons. Walking out of the town centre and back towards the school, Eraqus and Cid were in discussions as to how to combat the situation that they were now faced with. From what Sora was picking up, it seemed that Cid was against letting Sora fight but Eraqus was adamant in his belief that there was nothing that could be done to change what was going to happen. For Sora it was of no consequence anyway. If Cid had his way the Heartless would appear here and Sora would end up fighting them. If Master Eraqus had his way Sora would go off someplace and fight the Heartless there. Regardless of the outcome, he was going to have to fight.

* * *

As they approached the school Sora let his thoughts drift completely. He found himself in a completely different place, where the sights and the smells were less tropical and more industrial. He was slowly walking down a street (which seemed a lot closer to him, indicating he was shorter), his right hand quite warm. When he looked down he saw that he was holding onto another small hand. Turning to his right, he was greeted with a sight he had been waiting to see for years. Her hair was an auburn red and fell around her shoulders, and her blue/violet eyes were happily looking at him, a wide grin on her face. He smiled at the girl, and found himself talking to her.

_"Where are we going?"_

_"To the park, Sora! You are so forgetful! You better not forget me, ever!"_

_"I won't, Kairi. I promise I won't..."_

A jolt brought him back to his senses, followed by a giggle and a concerned voice.

"Sora! Are you okay?" The voice belonged to Eraqus, who seemed close by, whilst the giggling was unmistakably that of Yuffie. Sora shook his head quickly, his world in a little bit of a daze.

"Yes sir, I'm fine..." he muttered, standing up again. It took him a few seconds to realise what had happened; whilst he was busy reliving a bit of his past, his present had promptly caused him to walk into a lamppost. He rubbed his head a little and dusted off his clothes. Eraqus was still looking at him with concern, but Sora smiled at the man.

"Really, I am okay... I just remembered something important," he said with a smile. After a long stare, Eraqus nodded and, taking Sora by the shoulder, led him into the school grounds. Sora smiled. So it was Kairi all along. That's why he found her voice and way she acted familiar. Walking back through the front doors, he followed Cid back into the headmasters office and sat down on one of the chairs. Yuffie sat to his left and Eraqus sat to his right. Suddenly Sora had a thought.

"Master Eraqus... if I can use one of these Keyblades... could it be linked to my past?" he asked. Eraqus looked at Sora, a little confused with the question.

"Your past...?" he said with uncertainty. Sora nodded and quickly explained a little about not being able to remember his past, including the flashback he had just had. He made sure to omit a lot of information though, just telling the man as much as he needed to know. Eraqus thought and nodded.

"It could be linked, yes. But only a powerful spell would have erased your memory in such a way that you have barely been able to remember anything. Certainly if you did encounter the Heartless as a young child, or saw fighting in such a way, the Keyblade may have chosen you to continue the task of a fallen warrior. Your memories would have been erased due to your immaturity, to prevent you from ever having to undertake such a task, but by whom I am not sure. As to why they have resurfaced, I believe that would be to do with seeing Kairi again. It could be that she too was given a Keyblade, but like you had her memories erased to prevent the Heartless from finding it. Has she shown any sign of remembering anything?" Eraqus realised that if she did, it could be very bad for her, but he sighed in relief when Sora shook his head.

"Good," he said. "It is imperative that she does not remember her past, for whoever did this spell must have done so for a very good reason." With that, Eraqus stood up and headed for the door.

"I need to make some arrangements, so if you will excuse me..." he opened the door and left. Sora let his head fall onto the table, hitting it with a clunk. This was NOT the Tuesday he had wanted. Not at all.


	9. Chapter VIII

**_Sorry that it's taken a while to write another chapter! I have been rather busy so time is at a premium!_**

**_I would like to thank MasterKaze and a Guest for leaving a kind review each. And special thank you to KittyKat1217 for going simply insane with the reviewing; I am glad you're enjoying the story! Lastly, I want to thank you all for reading it and I hope that this chapter is as enjoyable as the others, though it may be a little disjointed at points!_**

**_Nevertheless, here is Chapter 8 of Two of A Kind!_**

**_ECGadget_**

* * *

**Chapter VIII**

On occasion, Destiny Islands would experience some uncharacteristic rainfall. Instead of the tropical rains that one would expect to hit, they would get some cool weather with a miserable drizzle. But the residents of the Islands were generally too good natured to let it put them off; apart from umbrellas, you wouldn't notice anything different with how they went about their daily business. Of course, when it came to going to the beach it was a completely different story. The water looked dull and choppy, as if it was warning people away. The sand itself would turn dark and become troublesome to walk upon. All the birds would be hidden within the safety of the trees, and generally the place would look lifeless. So the beach was avoided at all costs by everyone.

The afternoon was a waste then. Sora waited outside for Kairi, letting the raindrops fall out of his hair, trickling down his face. Unlike most people, he hadn't bothered with putting on the hood that was on his jacket, or opening an umbrella. He actually quite liked the feeling of the rain in his hair.

"Ugh... the quicker I get home, the better..."

Sora smiled to himself; it seemed that Kairi wasn't too fond of the rain then. The two of them started their usual walk back up the valley and towards their home. Yesterday's incident was still fresh in Kairi's mind, so she walked unusually close to Sora. Sora felt a little uncomfortable but didn't say anything; after all they were once even closer. He wished that he could mention it to Kairi but, as Master Eraqus has told him, it could be potentially dangerous for her to find out. They continued walking in silence, both listening to the rain as it fell and hit the ground. Puddles were starting to form in some places, which Kairi was careful to avoid. Sora didn't really care though. He just continued walking through the puddle, something Kairi seemed to find amusing. Sora looked at her as she giggled.

"What?" he asked her, not sure why she was giggling.

"You're really weird," she replied, pointing to how he was just walking through the water as if it wasn't even there. Sora shrugged.

"We live on islands so we're surrounded by water. A puddle is exactly the same," he remarked simply. Kairi opened her mouth to say something but realised that she didn't actually have any way to counter that. So instead she pouted. Sora chuckled quietly and shook his head. A vague memory told him that she would often do that when he didn't feel like playing with her. More often than not he would give in and make his friend happy. Of course, now that they were older, that was no longer the case. Sora didn't give in at all, nor did he have any intention of it. As they turned off the main road and up the final hill to their house, a shaft of sunlight burst through the clouds, lighting up a small area. The reaction from Kairi was immediate. She grinned and ran into the sunlight, taking off her hood. Sora held back a laugh and decided to not tell Kairi that just because there was sunlight shining down on the ground didn't mean that it had stopped raining in that particular area. He watched as she turned to him with a grin.

"Here comes the sun, do do doo doo," she sang happily. Sora shook his head in amusement as he let his friend have her fun. He was pretty sure that he wasn't the weird one at all; she was. But it was definitely a good weird. Her company just felt right in a way, though still uncomfortable. He waited a few seconds for her to calm down before they walked up the rest of the hill and to their respective homes.

"Hey Sora?"

Sora turned and looked over his fence to where Kairi was standing. She looked a lot more serious then she had been a few short moments ago.

"What is it Kairi?" he asked her, walking across the small patch of grass that separated his garden path from the fence that divided the two houses. She did the same and looked at Sora. He could sense the fear that was hidden in her eyes, covered up by her hyperactivity.

"That creature from yesterday... will it come back?" she asked uncertainly. Sora looked at her and slowly shook his head.

"I don't know... not if I can help it," he replied. Kairi looked at him, slightly confused. But Sora just gave her a small smile and walked off. She sighed and mirrored him, walking into her home. Hanging up her coat and taking off her shoes, she ran straight upstairs to get her wet clothing off. She really hated it when her clothes got wet, despite actually liking water. Quickly throwing some comfortable clothing on, she opened her diary and grabbed her pen. From the corner of her eye she could see Sora in his room, laying on his bed with a book in his hand. She thought for a moment before starting to write.

_"Dear Me In The Future,_

_ Yesterday Sora and I came across this really weird creature. It was really scary! I couldn't sleep all night because I was scared it would come back. Sora doesn't seem to be phased by it though; I don't know how he doesn't get scared by anything. I like his company because he makes me feel a lot safer. So do all of his friends, but Sora most of all. Probably because I walk to and from school with him every day. I still don't know any of his secrets, but he has been smiling a little more today than normal. Maybe something good happened to him?_

_Well, I better get on with my homework!"_

Closing her diary, she locked it and stowed it safely under her pillow before taking out her school work. She could see that Sora was already at it, his head tilted downwards as he read from the textbooks, not looking out the window. Kairi smiled, and then did the same.

* * *

Staring into the open chest in front of him, Eraqus saw items that he had not used in years. Neatly folded at the top was a white haori with a bronze lining. He slowly took it out and opened it up, looking at it. Apart from the fold creases, the robe looked as if it was just made. He carefully placed it on the mattress that he had on the floor of his room. Underneath the haori was a pair of trousers; a cream coloured hakama. In a similar fashion, Eraqus lifted it carefully, unfolded it and placed it on his bed. The next item was not traditional Japanese casual attire but more like the attire of the infamous samurai warriors. Picking up his navy blue v-necked shirt, he checked the silver metal X that was woven into the fibres, making sure it was not damaged. Then he picked up a medium weight armour that was designed to cover his lower torso, starting from the end of his ribcage. It was mostly a metallic bottle green-blue colour, with numerous scratches and minor dents over it. It served as a reminder of how dangerous his former occupation was. He looked at the emblem that was emblazoned on a metallic navy blue second in the middle. His fingers gently traced the straight edged heart like shape, that made up one point of a four pointed star. After a moment of thought, he placed the armour on the bed with the rest of his attire and pulled out the final item: armoured boots, silver in base armour, with an additional layer of gold armour from the shin down until the ankle, then gold around the sides and over the toes, with a black sole and top. The metal was a little tarnished and dull after being in storage so long but that would only take a few moments to clean up. The old Japanese man looked at his bed and smiled a little, but it was a smile that concealed worry. He had hoped that he would never have to don this particular outfit again; whilst he was happy to have the chance to do good again, it was a bittersweet feeling due to the fact that people would undoubtedly get hurt. Such was the way of the Heartless. He slowly walked a few paces across his room to a set of drawers. Opening the bottom one, he rummaged around a while through the various trinkets that he kept in there. Right at the back of the drawer was a small box that was sealed with a clip. He carefully pulled it out and opened it. Inside was a five pointed star shaped item, carefully kept with padding around it. Eraqus took it out of its case with the same care that he had been taking his clothing out with. The object was the same navy blue as his armoured shirt, and it had an aura around it that gave it the appearance of glowing. In the middle was another five pointed star which was more rounded and lime green. It was enclosed within a lime green circle that had diamond like shapes protruding from it towards the tip of the outer star. Finally, in place of one of the stars points there was a lime green lighting shape that extended out in the same direction that the star's point would have. It was connected to the rest of the object at the point where the enclosing circle broke. Turning it over in his hand, Eraqus looked at the Star Shard and admired its natural beauty. In the same way as many people valued precious stones, Eraqus valued this object. But unlike a precious stone, which only had aesthetic value (except diamond which was extremely useful), a Star Shard was an object that was of vital use to people who had a similar occupation to what the master formerly did. For the small intricate object that now was clearly glowing had the ability to teleport people. Not from one place to another in a sense, but from one world to another. And that was exactly what Eraqus needed to do right now. He closed his eyes and focussed on his destination. A flash of light followed. Upon the fading on the light, everything in the room looked exactly as it did before but with one important different. Master Eraqus had disappeared.

* * *

Sora couldn't sleep. Once again his mind was very alive with a variety of different thoughts. It kept seeming to flick between his past, present and a possibility of his future. Sighing, Sora got out of bed and looked out the window. Unfortunately for him the skies were overcast, so stargazing was out of the question. As he turned to walk back to his bed, a glimmer of light caught his eye. Had it been a clear night, he would have assumed that it was a twinkling star or a strobe light on a plane; that would be the normal things that would glimmer in such a fashion. He squinted, trying to focus on the glimmer, which seemed to be moving erratically through the sky. It left a small trail behind it, silver in colour. The glimmer itself seemed bluish and was glowing brightly. Sora quickly rummaged in his desk drawer and pulled out a pair of binoculars, before opening his window and climbing out onto the roof. Careful not to lose his footing, he climbed right up to the top and sat on the peak, one hand holding on to help him keep balance. With his right hand he brought the binoculars up to his face and scanned around for the weird glimmer that he saw. Locating it, he twiddled the knob on the side to focus in on the mysterious object. Even with the magnification of the binoculars, it didn't look any more definitive. He could make out what he thought to be a vague shape, but it was moving too randomly for him to get a solid look at it. Instead he zoomed out a little, following its path to see where it led. He watched quietly as the object heading towards to the other side of the island, towards the hills. Though it was appearing smaller now, Sora kept it firmly in his sights. Then, without warning, it disappeared. Sora zoomed in as far as he could, trying to figure out where it had gone, but had no luck. It had just vanished into thin air.

"Pssst, what are you doing up there?"

Sora looked down to see Kairi hanging out of her window, her back against the window sill, looking at him upside down. She was wearing light pink pyjamas, with her shirt buttoned up all the way. Sora looked down at her and raised his eyebrow.

"What are you doing awake?" he asked her. Kairi shrugged, a small smile on her face. Seeing Sora upside down looked a little funny. Because of his spiky hair it looked like he was hanging from the roof from her perspective, not sitting upon it.

"Couldn't sleep," she said, keeping her voice at a whisper so that she didn't wake anyone else up. Sora carefully hopped off the main roof and onto the flatter part that made up the roof of his room.

"I thought I saw something, so I was trying to find out what it was," said Sora, answering the previous question that was posed to him. Kairi turned herself around and looked at Sora properly, now that he appeared the right way up.

"What was it?" she whispered, curious as to what could have possibly piqued Sora's interest. He shrugged.

"I don't really know. It was just glowing and flying around. It went that way," he replied quietly, pointing in the general direction of the islands town centre. Kairi looked at him.

"Let's go find out what it was then!" she said excited. Sora looked back and shook his head.

"Are you crazy? Going out at this hour?" he replied in a hushed tone of surprise. Kairi's eyes widened in excitement.

"Come on, I know you're really curious to find out what that glowing thing was!" said Kairi slyly, trying to appeal to Sora's sense of adventure. Sora shook his head again.

"Even so, we shouldn't be going off exploring at night," he argued. This time Kairi just stayed quiet and fixed him with a hard stare. She knew that Sora would eventually cave in this time, because she could see that he really wanted to find out what that glow was. And she just wanted to have some fun exploring the island at the same time. Because she hadn't seen the glow she didn't exactly know what Sora had actually seen, but she was curious. She watched Sora as he carefully clambered back into his room and sighed. Her efforts seemed to be unsuccessful then. As she got herself fully back into the room she heard Sora call.

"Downstairs, five minutes," he muttered quietly, before closing his window. Kairi nodded and shut her window too, before grinning widely and grabbing some more suitable clothing. As a quick afterthought, she shut her curtains before changing.

* * *

"It went somewhere that way..."

"There doesn't seem to be many places it would disappear on that side though. Where could it have gone?"

"Maybe a house? There are a few houses up in those hills. I think Eraqus lives somewhere up there too."

"Eraqus lives up there? He must be rich!"

"Shhh! Keep your voice down Kairi, we shouldn't be out at this time and I don't want people recognising us."

"Sorry!"

Sora and Kairi walked through the town centre, past the closed coffee shops and the town hall, staying as close to the lights as possible. Sora knew there was a shortcut to get across town, but he didn't feel at ease with using it, not with the knowledge that he now knew. Besides, he didn't have that Keyblade weapon with him. Even if he did though, he had no idea how to use it so it would probably be useless. Add that to the fact that Kairi wasn't to know about any of this and it meant that Sora had to take the long route. That involved going through the town centre, where they may run into other people and end up in a trouble. But so far they hadn't been stopped or approached. As they walked up into the hills on the opposite side of the island the urban areas thinned out; now there was a lot more space between the buildings, and the houses were more secluded.

"I've never been to this side before," whispered Kairi.

"It's really nice in the daytime; some of the houses here look spectacular," said Sora. He was looking around to see if he could spot the glowing object. He assumed that it had landed somewhere, maybe even in somebody's house. That would make it easier to spot then, since nobody would miss the noise of an object smashing through a roof or window. He pointed up towards a set of houses that were slightly further up the hill. They stopped at a fork in the road.

"Which way?" asked Kairi. Sora looked back across the island, towards where the two teenagers lived. From there he tried to extrapolate the correct trajectory of the object, hoping that would help him determine where it went down. After a moment he pointed to the right.

"I'm sure it went down in that direction," he said as he chose his path. Kairi nodded and followed closely as he started to walk again. In a similar fashion to Sora, she started to look around for any sign of what Sora saw. She was so busy trying to find something though that when Sora suddenly stopped in front of her she did not realise.

"Ouch!" she cried as her face smashed right into Sora's back. She rubbed her now tender nose and scrunched up her face.

"Sorry," whispered Sora, turning to make sure she was okay. She nodded a little to let him know that it only hurt a little, so Sora pointed at what had caught his attention. A light could be seen flickering from a downstairs room in one of the houses a little away from where Sora and Kairi currently stood.

"That's unusual for sure," said Kairi. Sora nodded and slowly approached the house. He didn't want to be snooping on people's private property though, so he kept outside of the small bamboo style fence that bordered the house. Looking around, he tried to see if he could spot the glowing object anywhere, but after searching for a few moments he was unsuccessful.

"I'm sure it came down somewhere here... I can feel it," he muttered to Kairi, who was looking around near the trees that marked the start of a small forest, one of many on the Islands.

"Nothing over here," she remarked. Sora frowned and looked around; the lights were still on in the house and he could see three figures moving inside. One of them walked much like Master Eraqus, but the other two he couldn't make out. The tallest of the figures seemed to be explaining something to the other two, but Sora had no idea what. Besides, it wasn't any of his business what was going on in the house. He did wonder if what he saw was related to it though.

"Boo..." said a voice behind him. Sora jumped, his heartbeat spiking up for a short moment. The voice behind him started to giggle.

"And Yuffie strikes again!" it said between giggles. Sora turned around to face Yuffie and folded his arms.

"What are you doing here?" he said calmly, not giving away that she had actually frightened him for an instant. Kairi in the meantime had seen the two of them and joined them, nervous that they had been caught. Yuffie waved at Kairi.

"Heya Kairi!" she said cheerfully before looking at Sora again. "The question is, what are YOU doing here?" Sora looked at Kairi and then at Yuffie.

"I was looking for something, I thought it ended up somewhere around here..." he started to explain. As he did so, he heard a door open to his right. He turned to face it; standing there was a tall man in a flowing blue robe. He looked very old and had a long grey beard. Atop his head was a pointy hat, in exactly the same colour as his robe. He looked at the three and spoke in a slow and deep voice.

"Perhaps the three of you should come in," he said. Sora looked up at the man. His eyes were wide and round, and he had an aura of mysterious energy around him. All in all, this man did not make him feel very comfortable.

"Who are you?" he asked, as Yuffie started to lead the two teenagers inside. The man slowly shut the door and turned to face the group that was now gathered.

"My name is Master Yen Sid."


	10. Chapter IX

_**Sorry! I have just been so busy, work had been constantly getting in the way. As such I haven't been able to get a chance to write this. I know this chapter is a couple of hundred words short, but I hope that the content makes up for it! Also I am going to say possible SPOILER ALERT throughout the whole chapter. And also I've thrown in a few little things of my own, just to give it a bit more of a unique feel. I'd like to thank MasterKaze again and KittyKat1217 for reviewing the previous chapter. It really does help me understand what you guys want, since I haven't planned anything on this story (I write it on the fly). **_

_**Lastly I'd like to thank YOU as usual for reading! Please enjoy Chapter 9 (or 10 depending on how you look at it!)**_

_**ECGadget**_

* * *

**Chapter IX**

Sora had never been inside the house of Master Eraqus. He always thought that it would be very simple, reflecting the nature of the teacher but he had never imagined that the simple design would look so elegant. The furnishings in the living room were very basic; a small hand built bookshelf stood in the far corner, and next to it was a desk with a pile of unmarked homework laying atop of it. The floor was wooden but covered with a simple plush rug, which everyone sat on. The rug stretched out to one of the walls, so Sora had decided to lean against it. Instead of normal lights, Master Eraqus also seemed to use candles and oil lanterns. It gave the room a very soft and warming tone. The walls however were very bare; Sora could not see a single picture hung, or even signs that pictures were once hung on them. He glanced over at Kairi, whose eyes were fixed on the tall man that had opened the door and introduced himself as Master Yen Sid. Sora thought that was a very strange name but found it even stranger that he had never seen this man before on the islands. Surely that sort of dress would have attracted some attention. Then again, maybe the Master did not wear such clothing outside. He seemed to be waiting for Eraqus though, who was elsewhere in the house. Sora looked up at Yen Sid, trying not to make eye contact with the man. As for Yuffie and Cid, they seemed to be in deep conversation about something that Sora could not make out. He turned again as the curtains on one side of the room parted, revealing an opening where a door would normally be. Through the opening walked Master Eraqus. He sat down calmly near Sora and gestured to Master Yen Sid. Sora assumed that Yen Sid was then a Master of a higher order than Eraqus was, because of the respect that was being shown by him. He would have to ask Eraqus about that when he got a chance.

"You must be Sora," said Yen Sid, addressing the curious teenager. Sora looked up and nodded at the man.

"How do you know my name?" he asked him. Yen Sid shook his head slightly.

"Your name was not one that I knew. However, both Cid Highwind and Master Eraqus mentioned you earlier on. As you are now here, I can only assume that you are the Sora of which they spoke," he explained. Sora nodded again. This man definitely had wisdom, which was always a good thing. Yen Sid turned to look at Kairi and frowned a little.

"And who might you be, young lady?" he asked in his deep voice. Kairi shrunk slightly into the wall, intimidated.

"My.. my name is Kairi, sir," she said timidly. Yen Sid took a step back.

"Kairi, you need not be afraid of me; I am not here to hurt you. Quite the opposite in fact," he said, trying to alleviate some of the tension that was built up in the room. "I was asked to come here by Master Eraqus to see you Sora. However I did not expect it to happen so quickly. Tell me, what brought you here. I would have thought that you would be asleep, considering that you have school to attend?"

Sora thought for a second about not mentioning the strange object he saw, but realised that this stranger may have something to do with it.

"I couldn't sleep, so I was looking out my window. I saw a strange object flying through the sky; it was blue and glowing so I followed it here," he explained, keeping his answer short and sweet. Eraqus looked at Sora when he said that, realising what Sora was talking about.

"I see... and what about you, Kairi?" asked Yen Sid. Kairi looked at Sora quickly before looking back at the imposing figure that towered over them.

"It was my idea to go looking for it in the first place, but I would only go if he did too," she explained, moving a little closer to Sora. Yen Sid nodded slowly and looked at Eraqus.

"Perhaps we should be more careful with using Star Shards to travel, especially when there are curious souls about, such as these two..." he remarked. Eraqus nodded in agreement.

"What's a Star Shard, and what does it do?" asked Sora, his curiosity once again getting the better of him. Eraqus pulled the one he used out of his pocket.

"This is a Star Shard. It's a very interesting object as well as being an extremely rare object. As for what it does... well it allows us to travel between the worlds," he explained. Sora looked at Eraqus, confused.

"Worlds? Is it like a plane, but faster?" he asked him. Eraqus shook his head.

"No no, young Sora. A plane allows us to travel to and from places in a single world. This allows us to travel to a completely different world." He paused, seeing that Sora was not following whatsoever.

"Hmmm... perhaps it is better if we to explain this right from the start," he said, mostly to himself. He looked at Kairi and then back at Sora.

"Sora, do you remember what I told you just the other day about keeping people safe?" he asked. Sora glanced at Kairi and then back at Master Eraqus.

"I'm sorry sir, I did not know that our search was going to lead us here," replied Sora, looking down, slightly ashamed.

"It matters not, Eraqus," commented Yen Sid. "I believe that Kairi may be as much a part of this as Sora is. What the connection is though, I am not yet sure."

"We will have to determine that," said Eraqus, looking at Kairi. She seemed quite scared by the fact that the conversation had turned to her.

"What am I a part of?" she asked quietly. Eraqus held up his hand.

"For you to understand that, I will have to explain a lot. Unfortunately we do not know all the information that we need to know, so there may be some gaps. Nevertheless, what we know we shall share. Master Yen Sid, would you be so kind as to perhaps explain the basic principles of Kingdom Hearts?"

Master Yen Sid nodded and sat down on the floor in front of the group, cross legged. Even whilst sitting he seemed to tower over the rest. Sora wondered if it was just his imagination that was making him appear like this; a quick look around him told him that it most likely wasn't. Yen Sid cleared his throat and looked around at the group before starting.

* * *

"Kingdom Hearts is possibly the greatest mystery we know of. It can be regarded as the world that connects all worlds. In that capacity one could say that it is the heart of the worlds. The lifeblood of all that is in our worlds is said to feed off the power of Kingdom Hearts. But we are not sure exactly what it is. Kingdom Hearts certainly seems to be both natural and artificial. However, such power comes at a price. Swallowed by darkness in the Keyblade War of centuries ago, Kingdom Hearts disappeared completely. Destroyed? No, but all that was left that we could see was a battlefield," said Yen Sid.

"What was the Keyblade War about?" asked Sora. Yen Sid sighed and looked at the boy.

"The Keyblade War was all about controlling the power of Kingdom Hearts, by means of the χ-blade. What was this χ-blade? It is the protector of Kingdom Hearts. The one who controls the χ-blade controls the power of Kingdom Hearts, and can open the door to all the worlds. Early Keyblades were forged in a similar design to the χ-blade, in order to help wielders control the legendary χ-blade. However, the wielders started to fight and brought destruction upon themselves through greed. The fighting shattered the χ-blade into twenty pieces, and the world was consumed in darkness. As far as we know, seven of those are of light, whilst the remaining thirteen are of darkness. The only thing that has kept the darkness at bay is the light that is within the hearts of children. But this light also has kept the worlds separated, and travel between them is not possible in the same way as once was."

"Then... why do we have Keyblades?" asked Sora. This time Eraqus answered the question.

"Those that survived the Keyblade War realised the error of their ways, and vowed to protect Kingdom Hearts until the end of time. In time, we became fewer and fewer but the threat to Kingdom Hearts also lessened. Of course there is still darkness around in the hearts of people, and that is what the Heartless feed off. To make matters worse, those who are capable of wielding the Keyblade are known as people who bring destruction to worlds. The fear and anger that is towards us is perfect for Heartless to spawn. But we have to fulfil our duty. And now, you will have to fulfil this duty also. They Keyblade has chosen you for some reason that I do not know; it is now time for you to start a journey to help us get to the bottom of a mystery that has presented itself."

In all of this conversation, Kairi felt rather left out. She didn't know what a Keyblade was, or a Heartless. She wasn't even sure what Kingdom Hearts was, though Yen Sid had just explained it. Yet through the whole conversation, she felt as though she knew something about all this. But no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't recall anything. She considered asking about all of this, but decided against it; Master Yen Sid scared her. Looking over at Sora, she hoped to see a little confusion on his face but as usual his face was completely impassive.

"Mystery? What mystery?" he asked, looking at both Yen Sid and Eraqus. In response, Cid stood up and gave Sora two photographs.

"First one was the sky a few nights ago," he said gruffly, pointing out a specific star. He then took that picture out of Sora's hand and pointed at the second. "Same place, same time of the night. This one was taken yesterday. See that star? It's gone."

"What does that mean though?" asked Sora, genuinely confused.

"It means that darkness has consumed that world. And if that is the case, something is wrong with the balance. It is our duty to find out why this is happening and put a stop to it," answered Yen Sid.

"Sora, as a new Keyblade wielder we are going to ask for your help in this matter. We are far too old to continue fighting but we can train you in the arts that you need to be trained in. However time is of the essence here. Every second that we wait is a second closer to another world being destroyed."

Sora stared blankly at Yen Sid. The man had clearly gone insane if he thought that Sora would be able to fight who-knew-what.

"Master Yen Sid, there is no way I can fight these Heartless creatures and go around saving worlds," he said after a while. "I mean, I haven't even finished school yet!"

"Young man," started Yen Sid, but stopped as Yuffie rose her hand, indicating she wanted to speak. Yen Sid nodded and turned to look at her, giving her his undivided attention.

"Sora, I know that you wanna do great in school and stuff like that, but do you know how cool it is to be chosen to do something like this? You're going to be saving all the different worlds and kicking Heartless butt!"

Kairi stifled a giggle when Yuffie spoke; that girl was always so full of energy and excitement. Kairi on the other hand had similar concerns to Sora. She knew Sora was tough and very strong willed, but that surely would not have be enough for him to go about doing what he was told he had to do. Kairi had an idea.

"Well, if Sora is going, then so will I," she said confidently. Everyone turned to look at her. "I mean... Sora can't go on his own, can he? If you had more people to help him then the job would be done faster and we'd all be safer, right?"

"True as that may be, I am afraid we cannot allow you to go Kairi," said Eraqus. Kairi looked at him with a slight pout.

"Why not? Besides, if Sora goes I won't even be able to do my science project!" she pleaded.

Cid chuckled and spoke up.

"Listen kid, sometimes there are reasons why some people have to do some things. Don't worry about Sora, he won't be going along. But we cannot put lives unnecessarily at risk just because they want to be brave, which is of course a good thing," he explained. Kairi folded her arms and curled up slightly. Sora tapped her shoulder.

"Don't worry about me, Kairi. I'll be back before you know it. How hard can it be to go find a few keyholes and lock them?"

Eraqus and Yen Sid exchanged dark glances. The young boy had no idea.

* * *

Sora calmly walked down the sandy west beach of Destiny Islands. He looked around as the sun sunk lower in the sky, bringing with it a cascade of red and orange that bathed the area in a fire light hue. He sighed a little and plopped himself down into the sand. This was his last evening that he would spend here for a long time. For all he knew this would be the last time he ever would be here. He lay down and looked up at the darkening sky, humming quietly to himself. The whole day had gone by in a blur. Master Eraqus and Yen Sid had visited his mum after school and informed her that Sora had been chosen to go on a long exploration trip due to his exceptional record in school. At first Sora's mother had objected but after a little persuasion she had given in. During the school day itself Sora didn't give anything away that this was his last day. Naturally Namine figured that something was wrong, but Sora was sure to avoid her as much as possible and avoid her questions too. The last thing he wanted was more people worrying about him.

"Hey..."

Sora closed his eyes and sighed again. Namine was anything if not persistent. He slowly sat up and looked at the girl who had now sat down next to him.

"Hello Namine," he greeted, giving her a small smile. She returned his smile with a smile of her own, but it wasn't a happy one.

"You were avoiding me today," she said quietly, her knees brought up to her chest. Sora felt guilt fill him. After all, this was his best friend and he had given her the cold shoulder.

"Sorry... I've just had a lot to think about today, and I didn't want you worrying," he replied truthfully. She smiled a little and nudged him.

"Silly... I always worry about you. Avoiding me won't change that," she replied with a little bit of cheek. Sora shrugged. True as that was, he didn't think that the worry that Namine normally felt for him and the worry she may have had when he told her about Kingdom Hearts was the same in any way.

"Yeah... I suppose so..." The two sat in silence for a few moments, watching as the sun edged closer to the horizon and the clouds changed from a dark pink to red. Sora glanced to his right and sighed once again, inwardly this time. He felt that it was probably right to tell her that he was leaving, but he didn't know how to. After struggling to come up with a nice way to say it, he decided that the direct route would be the best.

"I'm not going to be here from tomorrow." Sora waited for Namine's reply.

"How long will you be gone?" she asked. Sora smiled a little. That was one thing he liked about Namine. She never would try to talk him out of something, instead she would focus on what would happen afterwards.

"I'm not sure... hopefully not too long," he replied thoughtfully. Namine nodded slowly, realising that he may never be back.

"I'd ask why you are leaving, but I know you won't tell me," she said. Sora nodded slowly. Even if he could tell, he wasn't certain that it would have been a good idea.

"Kairi will miss you," added Namine. Sora sighed for the fourth time in a few short minutes. Kairi had spent the whole day trying to let Eraqus let her go, and trying to get Sora to help her. In the end though the answer was still exactly the same.

"I know... and I will miss all of you," he replied quietly. Namine looked at him; Sora had never said anything like that in years. It was then that she realised that Sora may not be coming back. She kept looking at him as he avoided her gaze, instead staring out into the ocean.

"Sora... promise me something?" she asked. Sora finally turned to face her, but still avoided looking directly into her eyes.

"What's that?" he said. In response Namine raised her hand, her fist lightly clenched but her smallest finger outstretched.

"Promise that you'll never ever forget me and we'll always be friends no matter how far apart we are," she said softly. Sora looked at her hand and then raised his own, locking his smallest finger with hers.

"Promise," he said, briefly meeting her eyes before standing up.

"Suns going down soon, you heading back yet?" he asked her. She shook her head and pointed out to sea.

"I think I am going to watch the sunset." Sora nodded and lightly touched the top of her blonde hair.

"Don't stay out too late, okay?" he said.

"I won't," replied Namine. Sora slowly walked back towards the pier where he had moored his small boat. Namine watched as he walked off, his boots leaving deep footprints in the sand. In the ever dimming light, he soon became nothing but a silhouette, clambering onto a boat and rowing away. She sniffed a little and turned back to watch the sunset. A small tear rolled down her cheek, falling into her lap.

"I'll miss you"


	11. Chapter X

_**Wow... it's been ages since I updated this story. I guess that is what happens when life gets in the way! I hope this chapter is up to the normal standard!**_

_**Please enjoy Chapter 10 of "Two of A Kind" and let me know what you guys think!**_

_**ECGadget**_

_**MAJOR EDIT: Uploaded the wrong chapter xD Thank you to Lordibau for being to quick to point it out!**_

* * *

**Chapter X**

Sora looked around, somewhat dazed from the experience he had just had travelling to another world. It was not one he cared to do again. There must be a better way to travel to other worlds; worlds that until a short time ago he did not even know existed. He shook his head, trying to clear the afterimages of bright colours that had burnt into his retinas, and slowly things came into focus. He found himself laying face first on a cobblestone path that was lined with a elegant but low stone wall. Slowly standing up, he looked over the edge and immediately wished he hadn't. If it wasn't for a firm hand holding him back, the dizzying height of the bridge would have caused him to topple right over the edge.

"Easy Sora; the effects of travelling will wear off in a few minutes. You'll get used to it," said Eraqus. Sora inwardly groaned. That meant he would be using this stupid Star Shard a lot more now. He led Master Eraqus lead him across the bridge and then up the path that twisted up into some hills. At the top of the highest hill stood a massive castle. The castle itself looked like something from the far east; Sora assumed that this was the former home of the Keyblade Master who now had let go of him and taken the lead. There was no sign of the huge castle turrets that one would normally expect, but that did not take away from the grandeur. The mist that surrounded the hills only gave the place more mystery, making it seem like it was the only building in the entire area of hazy greenery. Sora walked through a large arching castle gate and into the grounds. Walls similar to those that lined the bridge marked the edge of the castle borders, but there were staircases on the outside that led to the upper areas of the castle, making it seem as though the grounds also had multiple levels. Taking in a deep breath, Sora tasted the fresh mountain air. It invigorated him and seemed to make him feel a lot stronger. He watched as some birds swooped down from the top of the castle, flying low and out of the castle gates.

"Ruddy birds..." muttered Cid as he was forced to duck. In contrast, Yuffie was absolutely beaming to be on another world. She looked around, feeling a sense of belonging here.

"So, where are we?" she asked excitedly. Eraqus turned around with a small smile on his face.

"Welcome to the Land of Departure, otherwise known as my very own home," he said, confirming what Sora was thinking. And what a home it was. If Sora was to be a Keyblade master, he really did not mind having to live here. That being said, there was nothing wrong at all with his real home, back on Destiny Islands. The more he thought about the islands the sadder he felt. He had left behind two people who meant the world to him and he did not even know if he would see them ever again. He followed Eraqus up a flight of wide stairs that led up to a massive wooden door. Sora looked at the door. The engraving on the middle of it looked pretty familiar but he couldn't put a finger on where he had seen it before. The door was made out of some heavy wood, but Eraqus managed to open it with ease. Feeling a little nervous suddenly, Sora followed his teacher into the castle, Cid and Yuffie right behind him.

* * *

Inside the castle there was darkness. Sora coughed lightly, feeling the dusty air scratching at his throat. He looked around as his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness.

"Hold on," said Eraqus from somewhere in front of him. Sora did as he was told and stood still. In the darkness there was definitely something very eerie about this place; he could feel his hair stand slightly on end. When a hand clasped onto his shoulder, Sora visibly jumped. Yuffie couldn't contain her laughter at that point. Sora turned around indignantly and shoved his teacher and friend.

"That was not funny!" he growled, slightly shaken. Yuffie's laughter told everyone else that she thought otherwise. Even Cid chuckled slightly. When he was younger, that would be something that he would have probably done. But he was a little wiser now and the weight of responsibility had set in over the past few years. He gazed around as Eraqus lit flaming torches that were hanging on holders, held into cream stone walls. The entrance hall was very grand but at the same time was very simple. The floor was made out of smoothed flagstones, grey in colour. There were no windows in the hall, but the flaming torches did more than enough to light the room in a warm orange glow. Apart from wooden doors dotted here and there, there was a large staircase at the far end of the hall, splitting off after one level to go left and right and into various other parts of the castle. Cid was amazed.

"You lived here alone?" he asked as Eraqus approached them once more.  
"No no, this would be far too grand to live in alone," said Eraqus. Yuffie, who had finally stopped laughing at Sora, chimed in.

"Special someone?" she asked with a smile. Eraqus looked at her with a deadpan look.

"Sorry," she muttered after a few seconds, the smile sliding off her face.

"That is okay, it is an assumption that I expected," waved off Eraqus. "As a matter of fact, this castle was home to many visitors, and students also. That is why it is called the Land of Departure. Many warriors would rest here before departing on quests and journeys. That is not to say that there were not permanent residents here. Over the years I took up residence, but also some of my best students took up residence here too.

"Where are they now?" asked Sora as Eraqus led the three up the stairs and into the depths of the castle, lighting torches along the way. Eraqus sighed heavily.

"I do not know," he said quietly. Sora fell silent. He had never seen Eraqus sigh in that manner and he knew that there was something that he was keeping to himself. But for now he did not probe further. After a few moments, Eraqus stopped and pointed to some doors.

"You can stay in here," he said, opening one and then moving off to open the others. Sora peered inside. Like the rest of the castle had been, the room was unlit, but the wide window at the end of the room let plenty of daylight in. He stepped inside gingerly, unsure of what to make of the place. It was sparsely decorated, the only furnishings being a single bed, a wardrobe and dresser, a shelf and a desk with a chair. The bed looked comfortable enough, and there was a nice red rug around it which made the room feel a little more homely. He peered through the door that connected to an adjacent room; the bathroom. That was just as simple as the bedroom and contained just a bathtub, toilet and sink with a mirror. In all honesty though there was nothing missing from the bathroom. Sora turned around as he felt a warmth on his back; Eraqus had lit two torches in the room.

"I know it is a little empty and devoid of feeling, but feel free to brighten it up. Tell me what you need and I will do my best to find them for you," offered Eraqus. Sora nodded and Eraqus left the room, closing the door behind him. Sora looked under the bed, finding his luggage there. He wondered who had brought it here and when. Carefully lifting one suitcase, he placed it on his bed and opened it, emptying its contents slowly into the drawers and wardrobe. One suitcase down, he moved it into a corner and started on the second. This one contained more personal items and less clothes. He looked around, moving back and forth from the bed as he arranged them around in the room to make it feel as close to home as he could. Lastly, he took out his small telescope and placed it near the window. He then stopped and looked out the window. The sun was setting on the other side of the castle, letting him know that he was on the south-eastern quarter. A few stars were coming into view now, and Sora stood and watched them as one by one they twinkled into existence. He knew that one of those stars was probably his home. How many other worlds were out there, just waiting to be explored? He wondered what would happen if the worlds were reunited. Would there be no more stars? Or would there be thousands of mega worlds, separated by an unbreakable force. He stood there, hands folded behind his back for what seemed like hours until a knock at the door drew his attention away from the starscape.

"Come in," he called out as he turned around. The door creaked open and Yuffie walked in, plopping herself down on his bed.

"I see you've already decorated your room," she said. "Looks better than mine for sure. I think I am going to ask Master Eraqus to get me a lot of things!"

Sora sat down next to her and nodded slightly. "I was thinking of painting the walls, but how long do you think we will be staying here?"

"Well I am not too sure, but I guess this would be the place where we would crash between missions, right?" she said. Sora looked at her. Yuffie was far too excited about the idea of going on missions. She did not even know what a mission would or could entail. As far as he was concerned, he was not going to be enjoying this missions too much at all. But before he could even go on a mission, he knew that he would need to be trained up in the ways of the Keyblade warriors. He sighed a little; that was not something that he was looking forward to either. Maybe he could get out of it somehow.

"You're not thinking about trying to leave, are you?" asked Yuffie, tilting her head slightly and raising her eyebrow. Sora shrugged. Yuffie slapped him lightly across his arm.

"Come on Sora! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! You are going to get to do some really cool stuff and save worlds! Think about the amount of people you are going to help!" she said excitedly, trying to motivate Sora.

"Yeah... but what if this is not for me?" asked Sora uncertainly.

"Not for you? Were you not listen when Eraqus was explaining the Keyblade? It chose you. Not me, not Cid, not Roxas or Riku or anyone else. It chose Sora. That means that this is all for you! Sure, it probably is not going to be the easiest thing that you have done but it will be the right thing to do. And you never know, there may be a much bigger story around this than anyone knows. You are going to be writing a chapter of history!" exclaimed Yuffie, combating Sora's indecision. Sora sat there in silence for a while, his eyes looking downwards at the red rug. He bit his bottom lip slightly, a habit that he had picked up years ago that indicated that he was thinking. He finally looked up at Yuffie again and smiled slightly.

"I guess I can give it a go, right?" he said, hesitation still in his voice. Yuffie nodded enthusiastically.

"Yup! And we will be there to support you," she said, standing up and ruffling Sora's hair, which got a reaction out of him as he squirmed away from it. She giggled lightly and closed the door behind her as she merrily left the room, leaving Sora to his thoughts again. He got up slowly and changed into something that he could sleep in, before turning in. Something told him that he may live to regret some of the decisions he was making. He turned away from the window and curled up under the covers, leaving one of the flame torches lit to provide warmth and comforting light. His life was about to get a whole lot tougher.

* * *

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. Every morning Sora was woken up by the sunlight streaming through the window and the birds singing away outside. Every morning he got ready and went down to the kitchens where Yuffie or Eraqus were often cooking. So far it had only been the four of them that were in this castle, unless Sora had missed someone when he was asleep but he doubted that. After breakfast Eraqus would sit and teach Sora in the arts of wielding a Keyblade. Yuffie was always on hand to practise with but for the past 28 days he had failed to beat her. Every time that he thought he was getting somewhere Yuffie seemed to kick it up another notch. There seemed no limit to her skills, whilst Sora knew very well that there was an all too close limit to his skills.

"Why can Yuffie not be the Keyblade warrior," said Sora one day whilst he was pinned down on the floor.

"Focus, Sora!" ordered Master Eraqus in reply. "And Yuffie... would you be so kind as to stop crushing him now?"

Sora's only day of rest was a Sunday. That was the day that he spent in the courtyards and gardens. One thing Sora had to give this place was the natural beauty. It wasn't like Destiny Islands at all, but it was still very peaceful. In the evenings he would lay out on one of the upper courtyards, staring up at the sky. In the mornings Sora would go for a jog around the perimeter. Cid would join him occasionally, muttering something about needing to get back into shape. Yuffie had also joined him on a couple of occasions. But Sora found that when he was not training to the point of exhaustion his mind would drift back to the island and his friends. Sure he was not the most social person around but those friends still meant a lot to him. He had once asked Eraqus if it would be okay to visit the islands, but he was turned down.

"By returning to the islands now, you may endanger everyone there. We know that there are Heartless around, but they follow the Keyblade. And you have not yet mastered controlling it. I am sorry, but for now I cannot permit you to return," Eraqus had told them. Sora felt that it was a completely reasonable explanation, but he did want to get off this small world. As far as he knew, there was not much beyond the castle but forests. Again, the same reason stopped him from leaving. To make matters worse, the lack of people was actually getting to him. He had not realised it before now, but even though he did not talk to many people he liked to know that people were around. Yuffie, Cid and Eraqus were great but they were only three. Luckily Sora had found a way to bide his time. As he sat in his room on Sundays, Sora would draw and write and build things. In the four weeks that he had been here, his room had transformed from the barely decorated bedroom into a wonderfully coloured and busy room. But it did not stop there. With the help of Cid, Sora had managed to give the castle a new lease of life. The walls were more colourful and the entire place seemed a lot warmer than it first had. Even Eraqus liked it, commenting once on how much the colours reminded him of when he used to study here. But despite all the colour and vibrancy of the place, Sora still found himself wishing he could go home; which is why he now sat having a drink with Master Eraqus. Sora had chosen a cup of fresh orange juice, whilst Eraqus was having a cup of green tea. He was looking down pensively as the contents of the cup swirled around, whilst the young boy opposite him waited for an answer to his ever recurring query.

"Sora," he said finally, angling his head to look at the boy. "Do you feel ready to do what is demanded of you?"

Sora looked up at Eraqus, unsure of how to answer the question. He wanted to say yes, but that was not entirely true. Of course he knew that he felt more ready than he had been when he first arrived, but tomorrow he would feel more ready.

"I... I don't know," he replied honestly. Eraqus nodded and sipped his tea.

"Good. You can never be fully ready to face something when you have never faced it before. Had you said yes, I would have known that you were not learning the true objective. Had you said no, I would have known that you needed more practise. Let me ask you, every time you go out to face Yuffie, do you feel that you can beat her?"

Sora shook his head.

"Not all the time. Sometimes I go out and think I have done enough to beat her, but she always is ready for me."

"That is because I have told her to be. She watches you train, learns exactly what you are doing and how. She finds all your weaknesses. And no matter how strong or skilled you become, you will only be as strong or as skilled as your greatest weakness. Why do you think I told her to do this?" asked Eraqus. Sora shrugged, not certain why Eraqus would give him an opponent who was in essence undefeatable.

"Well, there are a few reasons. Firstly, it teaches you endurance and resilience. Despite always losing you come back to try again and again. When you are travelling and fighting the Heartless you will suffer defeats. You will see places that may have given up and that will make you feel the same way. But remember what you have done here and you will have the will to continue indefinitely. Secondly, by analysing each of your weaknesses and specifically targeting them you have slowly learnt to defend yourself and mask them. This is crucial. The Heartless learn fast, and they strike hard. If you let your guard down, even for a moment, it could be fatal."

"And thirdly, I just like to constantly kick your butt!" chimed in a feminine voice from behind Sora. Yuffie sat down next to him with a grin.

"You could go a little easier on me," grumbled Sora. Yuffie giggled.

"Aww, but that would be no fun! Plus you need to be as skilled as you can!" she replied, nudging Sora happily.

"Exactly," added Eraqus. "But the time for play fighting is now over. I have been around the worlds and have seen the darkness growing stronger. You must act fast."

Sora looked up at Eraqus. If he was interpreting what the Master was saying to him correctly, he was off to his first new world. He felt a small turn in the pit of his stomach; a mix of anxiety and excitement.

"Am I going alone?" he asked with uncertainty. Eraqus shook his head.

"Yuffie and I will be accompanying you. However, I will need to return here shortly and make further arrangements. My health is not what it used to be as you can imagine so I will only be a hindrance if I am around too long. Yuffie will be by your side during the missions. Though she does not have a Keyblade, she will be able to help hold off Heartless. We will leave tomorrow morning," explained Eraqus. Sora nodded and got up to leave. His heart rate had definitely increased and his legs suddenly felt like jelly. Tomorrow was going to a difficult day.


	12. Chapter XI

_**This is what happens when work gets too busy!**_

_**Enjoy this chapter that was a good two months in the writing!**_

_**ECGadget**_

* * *

**Chapter XI**

Sora opened his eyes and looked around. He found himself in a well lit room, laying on a bed. He frowned, having no recollection whatsoever of how he had got here. All he knew was that his right side was hurting him and he had a really bad headache. Breathing slowly, he let himself take in his surroundings.

"Hmmm... bed sure is comfy," he muttered to himself as he let himself settle into it. The room was simply decorated, with a wooden door and window on one side and a painted green door on the other. The floor was wooden too, with what looked like a soft rug in the middle. On the rug was a small round table that had a lit candle upon it. Sora smelt the air, deciding that that was where the faint lavender scent was coming from. It was a nice relaxing smell, that was for certain. Apart from that there really was not that much in the way of furnishings. A few pictures of unknown landscapes were stuck up on the walls. Sora assumed that this must be some hotel of sorts but he was no closer to figuring out how had ended up there. He sighed and let himself relax. It felt like he had fallen pretty hard on his right side but he did not even recall that happening. Struggling to remember what happened, he tried to focus on the last thing he did remember. That happened to be a bright flash of light, which didn't help him at all. As he tried to cast his mind further back, he heard a knock at the door; which one, he did not know.

"Um... come in," he said, raising his voice so that the visitor could hear him. The door opened slowly and Yuffie walked in confidently.

"Hey! You're up, finally!" she said in her usual active voice.

"Uh... yeah. What do you mean finally?" asked Sora, sitting up slowly as the ninja sat down on the end of the bed.

"When we got here you did not have a great landing. Not sure what happened exactly but you've been out cold for the past five hours. Eraqus was starting to get worried, he has been gone for a couple of hours though," explained Yuffie. Sora inwardly groaned. Things were slowly coming back to him now. The ride to this place had been really rough and he supposed he wasn't ready for the impact that followed.

"Where did he go?" asked Sora. Yuffie shrugged and shook her head slightly.

"No idea. He said he was going to see if he could find some help. I guess that either he hasn't found the help yet or has got stuck in a spot of bother. We've got someone out looking for him right now, so it shouldn't be long until he returns," replied Yuffie. She got up and walked up to the candle.

"Mmm... lavender is such a great scent, don't you agree?"

"Yeah..." said Sora slowly, his headache reducing slightly now. The pain in his side was just as strong as before though. He slowly rotated his arm around his shoulder and stretched tentatively to ease the stiffness that had come with being unconscious for so long. Standing up, he walked around the room a few times, taking a closer look at the framed pictures that were on the walls whilst he woke his body up properly.

"So, where are we?" he asked Yuffie, who was admiring a shuriken, one of the two that she normally carried on her. Sora had never actually seen her use one though, since all his training had been either hand to hand or her using a pole. He guessed that she was very good at wielding a sword but Master Eraqus had decided not to take the risk of her getting a little carried away and injuring him. Yuffie looked up at him and smiled.

"Welcome to Traverse Town," she said, gesturing around the hotel room. "We have friends here, but the heartless have been a right pain here for a little while now. Not too sure why, but we think there may be something significant here." Before she could say anything more, there was a crashing noise from outside. Yuffie jumped and ran to the door, slowly opening it just enough to look out. Sora waited with baited breath, his heart suddenly racing as adrenaline started to pump through his body. He felt the pain on his side dissipate but he knew that it was just being masked. He slowly walked up behind Yuffie and peered over her shoulder to see what she could see. If she knew he was there, she never acknowledged his presence. Her eyes were fixed on the far end of the corridor, where the main door had been opened. Sora watched the door too, as he saw two figures rush into the lobby. One was clearly Master Eraqus, but Sora did not recognise the second figure at all. Moving back, Yuffie and Sora opened the door wide to let the two burst into the room and slam the door behind them. Eraqus was panting slightly and the unknown man was holding his left side, obviously injured.

"Squall!" cried Yuffie, rushing over to the tall figure who dropped his oversized sword on the floor.

"I told you to not call me that..." he muttered, mildly irritated.

"Yup, but am taking that more as a suggestion... one that I am not taking on board," remarked Yuffie, turning to tend to Eraqus, who was now sitting down on a wooden chair.

"Well, they are a little stronger than I first though they would be here," he said as he finally removed his hand from his side. Sora looked at Eraqus with some fear clearly in visible in his eyes. If Eraqus was having trouble fighting whatever he had just fought then Sora had no chance at all.

"Don't worry, Sora. We are going to get ourselves some more help... for now we need to go out and scout. You and Yuffie need to go and get some numbers and find out if they are looking for something," ordered Eraqus. Yuffie stood up straight and saluted.

"Yes sir!" she said enthusiastically. Squall rolled his eyes at Yuffie's over enthusiastic behaviour.

"Yuffie, this is not some training mission. These creatures, whatever they are, are dangerous," he said sternly. All of this was not making Sora feel any better.

"Aww, come on Squall! You're talking to the great ninja Yuffie! I can fight the Heartless all day and night," she proclaimed proudly. Squall sighed and looked at Sora.

"You're the new Keyblade master?" he asked, a sceptic look etched into his features. Sora nodded and took a closer look at Squall. His hair was a little wavy and covered some of his features, but Sora could see very sharp eyebrows that gave him the impression of being in a constant frown. He also noticed a deep scar that started on his forehead and continued diagonally across between his nose and left eye. Sora wondered how he got that, but he felt that the story probably wasn't something he wanted to know. Apart from that, his face did not really give much away. His eyes were cold and dark, as if there was nothing there but loneliness. Squall looked Sora up and down.

"Why would it choose a kid like you?" he muttered. Sora decided to find some courage to speak.

"Hey, I'm not a kid!" he said with a frown. Squall kept staring at Sora for a moment more, as though he was scrutinising him. Then without warning, he turned around and walked away from Sora.

"The name's Leon," he said in a low voice.

"Sora," replied the young teen in a curt voice. Leon nodded.

"I know, Eraqus told me about you earlier," he said. Yuffie looked at Leon and then at Sora, sensing some tension between them. She wondered what was wrong.

"Lighten up Squall!" she said, jumping onto his back playfully. For a split second Sora saw a glimmer of someone underneath the hard exterior, but the second was all so brief. Leon gently forced Yuffie to let go of him and turned to face her.

"You got a job to do. Be careful," he said to her. Sora got up and walked towards the door again.

"Sora," said the hard voice behind him. Sora spun around to look at Leon.

"Keep your guard up," advised Leon simply, before turning to look out the back window of the room.

Sora nodded and, with legs that suddenly felt like they were sacks of bricks, followed Yuffie out.

* * *

"I count ten... no... eleven..."

"Make that twelve, thirteen, sixteen..."

"Right, so just outside there are sixteen Heartless," said Sora with a sinking feeling.

"We're going to have to find another way around," whispered Yuffie, staying low to avoid being seen by the dark figures that were moving outside.

"I wonder why they haven't come inside the hotel yet," thought Sora out loud. Yuffie shrugged.

"Maybe they don't think anyone is here, except Squall and Eraqus and they are just going to wait for them to come out again," suggested the ninja. Sora thought about that. It did seem like a possibility but from what he had been told about the Heartless that just did not seem in their nature. As far as he knew, the Heartless did not actually think about things. If they saw something that they wanted to destroy they just went ahead and did it. If Eraqus was a target for them, and he must have been, then why were they not finishing the job? He quietly followed Yuffie as she crawled across the floor of the main corridor. The hotel itself did not seem too big at all; two floors but only a few rooms on each floor. Sora assumed that this was a quick stop place for passersby, not a full blown hotel for people to stay in for extended periods of time. He stopped to take a peek out the window. He could see a small elevated pathway directly outside the window, which seemed to extend both ways. A low wall separated it from a drop that seemed to lead down into a plaza of some sort. Sora could see a semi circular pool on one end of the plaza that backed onto a decorative wall. The pool had a fountain built into it, but it looked like the fountain was broken as he could not see any water being expelled from it.

"Psst, Sora!" came Yuffie's voice from a little way away. Sora ducked back down and looked at her. She was pointing to a door that she had opened. Sora made his way over to her and looked into the doorway. It was dark but the light from the corridor had illuminated the start of a staircase that led down to the basement of the hotel. Sora thought for a moment; he wasn't even sure if it would be a basement. It could be the ground floor and they may have been on the first floor the whole time. Yuffie detached a couple of shurikens from her belt and put them into position between her fingers. Sora remained without a weapon for the time being. He did not feel like summoning his Keyblade at all at this moment in time. As they made their way down the staircase Sora realised that his ears were starting to pick up every tiny little sound, including the tiny creaks of the wooden steps. When they got to the bottom they found that there was no light at all.

"Great... any idea how where the lanterns are?" muttered Sora. Yuffie felt around in front of her, stepping forward carefully until she found a wall.

"Nope, but I found the wall," she said. Sora followed her voice with his arms outstretched until he felt Yuffie's hair. From there he moved over to the side and got a feel for the wall.

"Okay, there is no way we're going to find anything down here if we cannot get any light," he complained. Yuffie nodded, even though Sora could not see her.

"Yeah. I can see something down the far end of this corridor though. Looks like maybe some light coming through a window?" With that, Yuffie set off down the pitch black corridor, towards the light at the other end, which left a band of blue shining into the corridor. Sora followed quietly, listening out very carefully to see if he could hear anything moving within the building. As they approached the window, Yuffie crouched down much lower. Sora followed her lead and sank almost to the floor. He could feel something dark around this whole area. It felt as if the air was colder here. He shivered slightly as he tried to shake off the feelings. Yuffie looked at him. In the pale blue light he could see her features looking at him with concern.

"I'm okay," he whispered. Yuffie gave him a thumbs up and then peered out the window for a few seconds.

"It looks clear out there, I can't see any Heartless," she commented. Sora got up and peered out as well. As expected, Yuffie had done a thorough look-around and was completely correct. There seemed to be nothing there. Yuffie got up and pushed the window latch up.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" cried Sora in an urgent whisper.

"Relax, I need to take a proper look," she said as she opened the window. It groaned as if it had not been opened in a very long time, which was probably the case. Yuffie quietly climbed out the window and looked around. Sora hesitated for a moment before clambering out behind her. He looked around. They were in an alley of some sort which had a ground aqueduct running against the huge wall opposite. Sora looked down the length of the structure, noticing that he seemed to come from an underground gate on one side and then disappear off through an archway in a wall on the far end, which was barred. Apart from that it looked just like a regular wide alleyway, with slate blue cobblestoned pathways and bunting hanging over the hotel archways. Some tables and chairs had been left out, presumably for dining under the moonlight, which was shining brightly, glistening off the running water. If it wasn't for the tense situation Sora would have found himself feeling quite relaxed with the gentle splashing of the water.

"Place looks clear to me," said Yuffie as she checked around the corner. Sora turned to look at her.

"It looks like this double door leads out to the square again; in front of the hotel," she added as she walked back to Sora. Sora looked at the arched wooden double door that Yuffie was referring to.

"I don't suppose it would be a good idea to go out there," he commented dryly. Yuffie shook her head. Then without warning she jumped over Sora, her body ready to fight.

"Stay behind me," she ordered. Sora felt his hair stand on end as his eyes narrowed slightly, scanning the area around him for any sign of whatever startled Yuffie.

"What is it," he whispered.

"Not sure... I thought I saw something move... but I can't see it anymore," she muttered. In one hand she held a shuriken, whilst in the other Sora noticed a whip that he hadn't seen before.

"Should we get back inside?" asked Sora. A crash from above them stopped Yuffie from answering. Both of them looked upwards as an armoured Heartless flew out from over a balcony and landed hard with a splash in the water. A secondary crash, much smaller, followed. It sounded like glass shattering and Sora was pretty sure that it was. The figure of Leon jumped over the balcony and landed in front of them, a great sword held out in front of him.

"Yuffie! Sora! Get to the safety of first district!" he said, slicing at the fallen Heartless with his sword. It disappeared with a dark purple glow, only to have two others appear. Leon swung mightily and hit them with one swift blow. This time, Yuffie did not have a smart comment. She flicked her whip up and wrapped it around an overhead light. With the grace of years of training, she swung herself back up onto the balcony where Leon had jumped from.

"I'll get Eraqus!" she stated. She disappeared for a moment before popping her head back over the edge. "Squall... you're going to pay for that window, right?"

Leon rolled his eyes, as more Heartless started to appear.

"Sora, you need to go too," he ordered. But Sora wasn't planning on going anywhere. He stretched out his arm to the side and opened his hand. A split second later a blinding flash filled the alley. When it dissipated Sora found the Keyblade in his hand. He grasped it tightly with two hands and took up a fighting stance, similar to the one Master Eraqus had shown him.

"No way, I am here for this reason so I am going to help!" he said as he rushed forwards. The Heartless immediately turned their attentions to the new fighter. Sora watched as the first jumped up, black claws outstretched. He swung quickly and the Heartless vanished, a strange reddish glow floating up into the sky from where it had been. Sora had no time to examine it though as more Heartless started an assault. He slashed and jumped, using all the skills that Eraqus had told him to avoid being cornered, which is what the Heartless were attempting to do. Using skills that Yuffie had taught, he bounced against the wall of the hotel and used the momentum to swiftly use the Keyblade to dispatch of a few Heartless in one go.

"We've got to get out of here," said Leon, his voice remaining oddly calm in all of this. Sora would have been screaming out at this point, if he wasn't so deeply rooted with fear. But he couldn't agree more with the older warrior. He kicked one of the Heartless in the face to push it away and followed Leon as bolted for the double doors. Without breaking his stride, Leon sliced his way through a group of Heartless that were trying to block the path, jumped up and kicked the door right near the lock, causing it to break open. Sora followed him through into the small tunnel, stopped only once to slice at a Heartless that was getting too close behind him. On the other side, Leon was already battling another horde but seemed to be coping with apparent ease. Sora on the other hand was having serious difficulty trying to continuously battle Heartless after Heartless. The armoured ones were much harder to hit, they seemed to move a lot faster despite the armour weighing them down.

"We need to get up on the upper level, then go through the district doors" said Leon to Sora. Sora didn't have time to acknowledge, his Keyblade was growing hot and his arms were starting to hurt from the weight of it. He switched hands and tried to swing out but found it too difficult to do that.

"Do not worry, I have you covered" cried out a familiar wise voice. Sora looked up to see Master Eraqus jump down from the upper level and slice through four Heartless in one solid sweep. His brow was wet and his body looked as though he was pretty injured, but the way in which he moved seemed to defy it. Sora decided that this was the best time for him to get up onto the upper level. He ran towards a bench and jumped onto it, using it to bounce upwards and grab the ledge. Quickly scrambling up, he distracted a couple of Heartless by throwing the Keyblade at them. The Heartless disappeared, again leaving a floating red glow and the Keyblade magically reappeared in Sora's hand. Leon and Eraqus took advantage of the temporary distraction and leapt upwards, both of them managing to reach the ledge in one jump. Sora helped Eraqus up and then the three of them ran for the District doors where Yuffie was standing, ready to close them. As they ran through Sora felt a sharp pain across his back. Eraqus turned and swiped at the attacking Heartless with precision, before Yuffie shut the door. Sora collapsed onto the floor, his back in incredible pain. He felt someone lift him up, and the last thing he remembered was the voice of Master Eraqus.

"Contact the King. Tell him Eraqus needs assistance."


	13. Chapter XII

**_Well this has been a long time coming and is definitely not up to my usual standard, but hopefully enjoyable nonetheless!_**

**_ECGadget_**

* * *

_"__Dear Me In The Future,_

_Outside of school has got really boring without Sora. I often end up sitting and looking out the window wondering what he may be doing right now, or if he is thinking of us... probably isn't, considering how very distant he actually is. I wish I knew where he had gone to, along with Master Eraqus, Yuffie and Cid. Rumour has it that they are on a secret mission to do with the safety of the islands but I cannot see how Sora would be part of it. Namine knows something though, I am sure of it but I don't want to ask her because I am afraid of knowing...I just wish Eraqus had let me go with them too. _

_To make matters worse, I'm not making any headway with the project. I was told I could join up with another team if I wanted to, but I chose not to. What if Sora comes back and expects the project to have some progress? I can't let him down like that... anyway time for school now!_

_I hope you had a good night's rest, me in the future!"_

Kairi snapped the diary shut and tucked it away safely in her satchel, making sure that it would not accidentally pop out. She then turned to face the front of the class as the last of the students wandered in and took their seats. Most of them didn't even notice the empty seat that was usually occupied by Sora, but a few flickered their eyes toward it as they passed. Strangely enough not many people were even asking the whereabouts of Eraqus. Kairi had assumed that this was because Eraqus was probably known for going away every now and then, but soon realised that it was just down to nobody being concerned about missing people. She found this very odd for such a small island, but she did not go about questioning it. Taking out her books, she started following along with the teacher who had started the lesson. Kairi felt better when she had something to do that required all her focus, so school was currently an ideal distraction for her. As the lesson played out, Kairi spent time watching the rest of the class; in particular she was watching her friends. She did this everyday and the result was the same every single day. Roxas and Riku would normally joke around whilst the worked but the jokes felt a little hollow now. Xion would sit with a small frown upon her face, as if trying to work something out. Tidus and Wakka seemed to be a little more at ease with Sora not being around; Kairi guessed this was because they were either not close enough to him or they knew he would be fine. Namine on the other hand had become quieter than usual. Kairi was certain that she harboured more feelings for Sora than she let on, but she hadn't asked yet. Her eyes seemed to have lost some of the sparkle that they used to have and Kairi hadn't seen a full smile on her face in quite a while. But then again, Kairi hadn't smiled fully either so she understood what Namine was feeling. After all, it was only a few short weeks ago that she had been reunited with her best friend, and within a few days she had lost him again.

"Kairi?" said a voice from her left. She blinked a few times and looked up at Xion, who was standing beside her.

"Lessons over," she commented. Kairi looked forward and realised that Xion was in fact right. Somehow her thoughts had let the lesson melt away faster than chocolate over a fire.

"Oh... so it is," she replied, quickly packing up her books and standing up. Xion waited for her and then walked out the classroom with Kairi.

"I know you're worried about Sora," said Xion as they started to walk towards the main doors that led to the school grounds. Kairi nodded slightly, but did not reveal anything that she had heard about Kingdom Hearts. She remembered how Eraqus had not been too pleased about the whole idea that she knew so she did not think that it was something that she had to tell other people about.

"Just a little bit," replied Kairi as they walked past the headmasters office. Xion stopped and looked at the door. Kairi took a few more steps before realising and also stopped. She turned around and looked at Xion.

"What?" she asked, wondering if Xion had seen something. Xion pointed at the office door.

"I bet we could find out what was going on if we looked in there," she said slowly. Kairi shook her head.

"No no no no! We'd get in so much trouble! Besides, I don't think Cid was too clued up on it," responded Kairi, waving her hands in front of her to emphasise her point. Xion looked at Kairi and then back at the door, considering all the possible options.

"If we get the others involved I know we can figure this one out. We won't damage anything or take anything... we'll just search," explained Xion, trying to persuade Kairi.

"I agree with Kairi, there has to be another way." Namine joined the discussion with her disagreement of the idea. Xion frowned a little.

"There is something going on though, and it involves Sora. We need to find out," she argued, her deep blue eyes sparkling with defiance.

"Strange place to be talking," said a masculine voice from the side. The three turned to see Riku and Roxas standing nearby.

"Yeah, anyone would think you are trying to break into Cid's office," added Roxas with a chuckle. When the girls did not laugh, he stopped and looked at Xion.

"Seriously? You were trying?"

Xion shook her head quickly.

"No! I was just wondering if we could find information about where Sora has gone," she said. Riku ran a hand through his hair.

"That could be one way..." he said thoughtfully. Kairi stayed quiet as her friends tried to devise a bunch of outlandish plans to break into Cid's office.

_'Or we could just go and search the library for Kingdom Hearts' _ she thought.

"What was that?" asked Roxas from the side. All the attention suddenly turned on her.

"What? I didn't say anything," she replied, pretty sure that her thought had indeed been a thought.

"You said something about a Kingdom of Hearts," echoed Xion, looking at her with slight suspicion.

"Kairi, is there something you know?" asked Namine quietly. Kairi shook her head quickly, and then nodded very slightly.

"Not a lot, just something to do with this thing called Kingdom Hearts..."

* * *

"Kingdom... Kingdom... Kingdom..."

"Heart... Heart... Heart... okay, no luck here."

Despite a coordinated effort to find out about Kingdom Hearts, a thorough search of the library had no revealed any results. Sora had been wrong in assuming that it had books about everything; this was one subject it missed. Or had been hidden. Kairi stopped for a moment as she considered what she had been told on the night where they had gone searching for the star shard. The whole idea of Keyblades and Heartless and Kingdom Hearts was shrouded in secrecy. Maybe they would have to look beyond what they saw to find out more about it.

"Guys, look at this," came the voice of Riku from behind the books. Kairi and Namine walked around to where he was and peered into the book that he was looking at.

_"Of all the battles that have been fought, the worst comes from the legendary battle of Kingdom Hearts. Such a battle was so severe and shrouded in so much mystery that the existence of such a battle is even deemed by many historians are merely fictitious. Nevertheless, there are few clues around of this battle but no evidence is credible enough to determine whether it actually happened."_

"That's all it says," said Riku when the girls had finished reading. Roxas walked up to them, a dejected look on his face. Xion joined them a moment later. After both of them scanned the paragraph in the book Riku had found they sat down on the floor.

"We couldn't find anything else on the subject. The computers says books on the subject do not exist. And on the internet there is barely anything about it except what it says here in this book," groaned Roxas. This search was turning out to be a dead end.

"Maybe we are looking in the wrong place?" suggested Kairi. Riku shook his head. If they couldn't find it somewhere in a library or on the internet, he could not think of any other places that there would be information about it.

"No, this is the central hub of all the knowledge we have on Destiny Islands. If it isn't here then the information is not anywhere on the islands," replied Riku.

"Well... maybe it is not a what we need to look for, but a who?" The others turned to look at Namine as she quietly spoke.

"That's... a pretty good idea actually," commented Xion. "I mean, maybe it isn't in books because nobody wanted to write about them. Maybe they were too dangerous, or maybe enough people don't know..."

A lightbulb lit up in Kairi's head.

"My dad may know something!" she exclaimed, mentally chastising herself for not thinking of asking him earlier. "If it is something from the past I am sure he will know. It doesn't just involve this little world of ours, so maybe his work before we moved here will have something about it." Before anyone could say anything, she rushed off out of the library. Namine looked at the spot that she had been standing just a few seconds ago.

"Kairi is really hyperactive..." she muttered. The others nodded in agreement as they slowly made their way out of the old building.

"Probably why Sora found her interesting," added Riku. Xion looked at him.

"Interesting? I don't think he did actually," she commented as they started down the road that would lead back into the heart of the town centre.

"Well whatever it was, it was nice to see him smile a little more. I hope he is okay," added Namine. "I'm going to go home now, and get some research done for our project," she said as she waved goodbye to her friends. They waved back, watching her until she disappeared out of sight down a side road.

"I think it is high time for us to all head back," said Riku as he looked up at the sun. It had already started to turn a little more orange as it slowly started to set. The remainder of the group agreed and one by one headed off to their own houses.

* * *

"Dad! I have a history question for you!" called Kairi, letting her voice sound throughout the whole house.

"A good evening to you too," replied her father from the living room. Unlike Kairi he did not raise his voice but Kairi heard him nevertheless. She excitedly bounced into the living room and stood on the balls of her feet.

"So, a history question? That's not something I normally hear from you. What can I help you with?" he continued once his hyperactive daughter had somewhat settled down. He looked up at her from the armchair in which he was sitting. Kairi didn't look anything like her parents; she guessed her features came from her grandparents or somewhere along the lines. The only similarity she had with her father was the lighter eye colour. Though her eyes were more violet blue, whilst his were more deep blue. She looked at him carefully. Ever since they had moved to Destiny Islands he had seemed a lot more relaxed but there were still telltale signs of tiredness on his aging face. Wrinkles had started forming and when he smiled, like now, there were visible crows' feet on the edges of his eyes.

"Well, my friends and I were looking for a specific topic that we cannot find in the library and I thought maybe you know a bit about it," Kairi started.

"Not in the library? Must be very old or obscure for it not to be here..." said her father thoughtfully, his interest growing. "What is the name of the topic?"

"Kingdom Hearts," replied Kairi, her face hopeful. Her father looked at her for a moment, his face frozen with the same interested emotion. On the other hand, his eyes gave away another emotion: Pain.

"Dad?" asked Kairi, quite confused as to why he was still looking at her, seemingly in a daze. After a few seconds he blinked and smiled once again.

"Kingdom Hearts... is nothing important. All we know is that we do not talk about it, because it is a legend of old that just has so many holes in it we cannot find. What made you bring it up?" he asked. Kairi shook her head.

"We just came across it somewhere, and were interested in it because it sounded cool," she lied. Normally she would feel very bad about lying, especially to her parents but her father had clearly just lied to her about not knowing much about Kingdom Hearts. He clearly knew something but for some reason he was hiding it from her. Kairi had never know her parents to have ever lied to her, so she assumed it was for a good reason, but one could never be too sure.

"Hmmm... I see," replied her father, suspecting that Kairi was not telling the entire truth. But since he had not been honest with her, he let it pass.

"Well, I recommend that you do not try to look around for it; you will end up wasting your time," he added. Kairi nodded and smiled.

"Got it! Thanks, dad," she said as she walked out of the room and up towards her bedroom. Once there, she sat down on her bed and pulled out her diary.

_"Dear Me In The Future,_

_I have spent all day trying to find out about Kingdom Hearts with my friends. Despite searching everywhere none of us have found out anything more than what little we already know. I would have asked Master Eraqus or even Master Yen Cid, but both of them have gone with Sora I think. Yuffie and Mr Highwind have also gone with him, which tells me that there may be something pretty important going on. I asked dad about it but he wouldn't give me a proper answer. He is hiding something too but I have no idea where I am meant to find out about it. I mean, maybe it is super dangerous? But then why would they send Sora off to Kingdom Hearts? I better go talk to the others, let them know that there is something bigger going on. Or at least that I think there is..."_

"So he knows something about it, but doesn't want to tell you? Wow." Tidus was very confused. He hadn't been around when the others had scoured the library but he was starting to understand the various gloomy faces of his friends. The sun had just set and the night was setting in. Since it was a Friday, the teenagers were spending some time out in the town. Except of course this particular group were spending it slightly differently.

* * *

"Namine! You're meant to be wearing black!" cried Xion.  
"I don't have anything in black though," retorted Namine in her soft tone. Xion shook her head and took off her jacket, draping around her friends shoulders.

"There. Doesn't hide all of your dress but it is close enough," she said as she stepped back to take a look at Namine. The poor blonde didn't really like the black but she wore it anyway, shuddering slightly as she looked down at herself.

"You look fine, Namine," complimented Kairi. Namine gave her a small smile. Only Sora knew about her fear of the dark and why she wore light clothes, but since he wasn't here there was nobody she could really confide in.

"I still don't think we should be doing this," she said as the group approached the school. Up front, Riku held his hand up for silence.

"Alright, this is what we need to do. Roxas and Xion will head around towards the east wall of the school. Keep your eyes peeled from there. Namine and Kairi will blind the cameras whilst I run through. Tidus, you're going to over the north face of the school. Make sure you keep out of sight. When I give the all clear, join me inside. Same goes for the rest of you. Once inside we'll get into Cid's office, find out what is going on and then get out. We don't take anything, we don't break anything and we don't go looking for anything we are not looking for. Got it?"

The rest of the group nodded silently. Pulling out lasers, they slowly walked to the school, keeping to the shadows where the dark clothing would conceal them. Kairi looked at Xion and Roxas, who gave her a thumbs up as they split from the group to check around the school. It wouldn't be very good if someone happened to walk past the windows and peer inside as Riku broke in. Looking at Namine, Kairi gave her a reassuring smile and lined up her laser to point at the security camera that was directly across from her. Namine followed suit, aiming at the opposite camera as Riku stood ready to bolt. Tidus took a position where he could see both Roxas and Kairi, allowing him to pass messages between the two of them. Riku looked over at Tidus who was communicating with Roxas silently. He made some gestures towards him before nodding and turning to Riku, Kairi and Namine. He quickly turned his to double check his confirmation from Roxas and then put his thumb up. The two girls pressed the buttons on their lasers, sending beams of bright green light at the cameras. A second later they saw Riku rush in at full speed, and opening the main doors with a pass card he had acquired. The others chose not to ask how he had got hold of such a card; some things were better left unknown. Once Riku was safely in Kairi and Namine switched off the lasers and hid quietly in the bushes, waiting for the signals from Tidus.

"I always wondered how a laser worked," mused Namine as they waited. Kairi looked at her and smiled a little bit.

"It is just light waves all at exactly the same wavelength and coherent, giving a perfectly strong colour. At least that is the simple explanation for it anyway," replied Kairi. Namine nodded, turning over the small tube in her hands. For something so small, it was very powerful.

"So why did we point it at the cameras?"

Kairi thought about that for a moment before responding.

"Well, I guess lasers can blind cameras momentarily in the way they blind us..." she said thoughtfully. Namine continued to nod, understanding why Riku had asked for them to shine the lasers. The two of them fell into a comfortable silence. A few moments passed before Tidus gave the thumbs up, indicating that Riku had successfully switched the cameras off. Kairi gave Namine an uneasy glance before making the journey to the front door.

"We are so going to be in trouble for this..."


	14. Chapter XIII

**_Been such a long time, I may have forgotten how to write! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, though it may raise more questions than answers!_**

**_ECGadget_**

* * *

When Sora awoke, he found himself back in the unknown hotel room that Eraqus had originally left him in. This time though he wasn't alone. Eraqus was sitting on a plain wooden chair next to a small round table. Also sitting around the table was Yuffie, Cid, Leon and a mouse. Sora rubbed his eyes. He was sure he had just seen a supersized mouse like creature sitting at the table but he was probably imagining things. 

"The Heartless are organised. It's not like them to do things this way. Someone must be controlling them," he heard Eraqus mutter to what was unmistakably a mouse.

"I've tried to round up as many old warriors as I can but I am afraid I could not find any. There are some of my guard though that are willing to help. As long as we can work out how they can destroy Heartless too then at least we'll have more," replied the mouse in a high pitched quiet voice. None on the table had realised that Sora was awake.

"To make it worse, I got a message from Flynn today. Apparently someone back home has been trying to find out about the Keyblade wars. Also had a very clever break in to the school. That security program though, Tron, saw to it that nothing was taken off any computer. But who knows what they may have found in the books. The more people that know about this the worse it will get," added Cid in his usual gruff tone.

"Did Tron get any footage?" asked Yuffie, her voice unusually void of the bubbly excitement.

"No, they used something to blind the cameras. Can't have been Heartless though, they aren't that smart," he replied.

"Let's not assume that whomever broke in did so for a bad reason. For all we know we may have additional people on our side," commented Eraqus. "Though it being on Destiny Islands, that is not good. Perhaps Sora wasn't the only reason Heartless appeared on the Islands; he could have just been the catalyst they needed." Sora decided it was time for him to speak up. He sat up in bed slowly, his body aching from the fighting he had done earlier.

"Does that mean I get to go home?" he asked, slightly surprised at how strong his voice still sounded. The mouse jumped up and rushed over to him. Now that Sora could see him better, he was even more surprised. Two huge round ears stuck out over a smiling round face. If it wasn't for the fact that it was a mouse, Sora would have said the face looked quite kind. He, if it was a he, was dressed in a dark black coat with a silver zipper that went all the way down to his feet. Sora had a strange feeling that he had seen that coat style somewhere before.

"Heya! So good to see you awake, my name is Mickey Mouse, but my friends call me Mickey!" introduced the Mouse, offering a hand (or paw). Sora took it a little uncertainly and gave it a tentative shake.

"Sora, this is King Mickey, one of the remaining Keyblade warriors," explained Cid. Sora looked at Cid and then back at Mickey.

"King?" he asked, hoping it wasn't too rude.

"You have to understand Sora, all these other worlds may have people that do not look just like we do. It makes perfect sense in many of these places for a mouse to be King. As a matter of fact, Mickey is also the King of Destiny Islands, but he tends to just leave things be until he is needed in most places," Eraqus did a better job of explaining that Cid did. Sora nodded slowly as Yuffie giggled.

"You'll get used to it," she said as she stood up and stretched. Mickey also laughed, a short high pitched laugh that seemed to fill the room with a happy aura.

"I was a student to Master Yen Sid for a number of years. You've met him, right?" he asked. Sora nodded, causing Mickey to beam.

"Swell! Now, time is of the essence here. It seems that the Heartless are getting stronger with each passing day and we need to find out why. Sora, you mentioned to Master Eraqus that you saw a Heartless on Destiny Islands but it did not do anything, correct?" continued the King. Sora looked directly at him and for the first time saw a dark worry that lay behind King Mickey's good natured face.

"Yeah, it just watched Kairi and me as we walked... I mean we stayed away from it because you know, it looked really dangerous," he replied.

"Kairi... she's an important one," muttered Mickey. The group looked at him, confused.

"Excuse me, but how is she important to this?" asked Cid, his voice laced with the concern that could only come from a teacher worried about the welfare of his student. Mickey sat down on the foot of the bed Sora had just been lying in.

"I am not sure, just a feeling," he muttered, his brow furrowing slightly as he thought about it.

"Eraqus, was she not the one who had to have her memories locked away?"

"Her what? Wait a minute... you know why she cannot remember things? What about me? Why could I not remember?" exclaimed Sora, suddenly realising this was his chance to find out what was going on and how he, and now Kairi, were connected to all this.

"That is a very long story, and not one we have the time to go into right now, unfortunately," replied Mickey, his voice giving away a trace of the pressures that faced him. Sora, despite wanting to pry further, realised that this was not the best time to do so. He would find out what happened though, the entire story from start to finish. He just hoped that he would have the chance to share it with Kairi. Instead, he just nodded. Mickey smiled once again.

"I'm sorry but you will know in time, I am sure of that. Now, we need to get ourselves back out there. Take a drink of this," he said, handing Sora a small vial.

"What is it?" asked Sora, taking it and looking at it carefully. It seemed quite thin, with the consistency of melted ice cream.

"It's a health potion. Designed to repair a lot of damage done to your body. Not recommended to be drank all the time, but when needed it can do wonders for you," explained Mickey. Sora popped open the lid and peered into the small funnel. The liquid inside didn't seem to be bubbling or frothing. In fact the only property that looked out of place was the fact that it was bright green. He took a sniff. Nothing. He heard Yuffie giggle from the table and realised he probably looked silly for not drinking it. So he gave an apologetic glance to the King, who for his part did not seem to take any offence in the fact that he was not drinking immediately. After a few more seconds of his brain debating whether he should or not, he raised the vial to his lips and drank its contents. The effect was immediate. Every single ache that Sora was feeling disappeared, as did his weakness and general weariness. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Wow..." he muttered, handing the vial back to Mickey, who pocketed it.

"Like I said, it can do wonders... but it is also dangerous to have too much of it, as you will become reliant. And that is not something any of us should become," said Mickey. Sora took a deep breath and got out of the bed, slipping on his boots and stretching. He felt more than ready to go back out and fight.

"What's the next move?" he asked.

"Well, we severely underestimated the power of the Heartless, so we need to regroup, gather some numbers," said Cid.

"But the only way for us to do that is to clear up this town, or at least as much of it as possible. Shortly after Mickey arrived we lost the ability to use our Star Shards to travel. We think it has something to do with the Heartless here. In fact, that really is the only lead we have. In order for us to have a chance of regaining our abilities to leave this world we need to clear them out. The occasional Heartless should not be an issue but we cannot have hordes following us wherever we go," added Eraqus.

"In short, it's time to kick some..."

Eraqus cleared his throat pointedly.

"... doors down and save this town," finished Yuffie weakly, looked at the King, who had his backed turned to her and did not see her sheepish expression.

"Indeed. If you're ready Sora, let's go for it."

Sora nodded.

"Let's get back out there."

* * *

Sneaking around with two people was one thing, but sneaking around with five was very different. Cid had remained behind, trying to get in touch with Destiny Islands again in order to figure out what was going on there. That left Yuffie, Sora, Leon, Eraqus and King Mickey to work their way back into the other districts and fight their way through. So far they had passed down a couple of alleyways and not encountered a soul.

"Do Heartless have souls?" asked Sora, the thought suddenly occurring to him. Eraqus shook his head.

"No, they do not. Heartless have nothing but the darkness from the fear and evil in a heart," he explained. Sora nodded, understanding that he was fighting what was in essence a feeling.

"So... if we were not scared, would they just disappear?"

"If only it were that easy... Heartless are born out of darkness in hearts. Fear is the majority of it but there are other aspects too. The problem is that every person fears something, in some which way, at some time. If that fear grows too strong and the person is subject to an attack by the unversed, a Heartless is born. That Heartless will then feed off all the fear and dark emotions of it and spawn more Heartless. In many ways, they are impossible to defeat with conventional weapons, which is why the Keyblades are vital. Only three of..." Eraqus stopped mid sentence as he heart a soft footstep in the distance. Immediately blending into the shadows, Mickey crouched low and continued against the wall. Yuffie did the same, whilst Eraqus took light steps, not hiding from whatever was coming towards them. Leon lifted his arm over his shoulder and grasped the hilt of his supersized sword, as he also walked into the shadows. Sora was unsure what to do, so he just followed Eraqus, as quietly as his could. From the viewpoint of an outsider there were only two people walking down the alleyway. Sora felt himself shiver involuntarily. Forcing the fear from his mind, he took a deep breath and waiting for Eraqus to make a move, which he would follow. 

"Step light, Sora. There seems to be something much bigger going on here," muttered the old man ahead of him. Sora did as he was told, listening out carefully to see if he could possibly hear anything that would give him an advantage. A dark shadow flashed across the ground, causing Sora to jump and jerk his head up towards the sky, just in time to see Yuffie's leg disappearing over a rooftop, doing her best to get to a vantage point. He watched as she climbed up a tall building with ease and perched herself at the top, almost hidden in the shadow. Unless you had seen her climb up there was little way of knowing there was a person there. Using the moonlight, she reflected it against her shuriken to indicate where she could see movement. 

"Prepare yourselves," said Eraqus, his Keyblade appearing in his hand with merely a small glimmer. From the corner of his eye Sora saw Mickey do the same. Sora followed suit, hoping his summoning of the Keyblade would not be bright like it always had been so far. Luckily, despite being brighter than that of Mickey and Eraqus, it was not as bright as it was at the start. Sora wondered if that had to do with the fact that he was getting some amount of control over the Keyblade and its power. 

"Go!" ordered Eraqus, barking out a single word that caught Sora unprepared. The trio bounded forward with amazing speed and synchronisation, with Sora being left somewhat behind as they rounded the corner. He picked up speed to catch up as he saw a horde of Heartless ahead of him. Most of them seemed to be the shadow kind: so dark that they absorbed all light, fidgety, with glowing yellow eyes that seemed to give off a power of pure evil. There were a few others too though, armoured with an emblem of a black heart with a red border and cross on it. Some of those were dressed in blue with sliver helmets and shin armour, the others were in bronze with golden armour. Both had long red claws that looked like they could slice a person in half if they were given the chance. If it wasn't for the fact that they were Heartless, Sora could have mistaken them for a Knight. 

"Xehanort..." Sora heard Mickey say in a tone that gave off a message of distrust and confusion. But right now, he had no time to ask about this. Ploughing Keyblade first into the horde, Sora started swinging at the creatures ahead of him, doing his best to clear as many of them as possible. The shadow like Heartless were harder to hit; every time Sora swiped they would either duck or melt into the ground where he could do nothing to hit them. At the same time, the armoured Heartless seemed to lack this ability but made up for it with enhanced speed and a lot more strength. Sora found himself being pushed backwards by the endless barrage but he grit his teeth and forced himself to fight back with all the strength he had. Taking a quick glance, he could see that each Keyblade wielder was having to face what seemed to be an endless torrent. Leon, whilst also being attacked was not being attacked with the same intensity, giving him a slight advantage and allowed him to help the others. 

"Heads up!" cried a voice from up above. The Heartless momentarily glanced upwards at the newcomer, giving the four on the ground a chance to go on the offensive. Moving closer towards each other they pushed the Heartless back towards a dead end. Some of the Heartless, sensing defeat melted away into a dark portal, whilst others fought on, becoming angrier and fighting with more intensity. From above, Yuffie leapt to the ground, landing expertly on two of the armoured assailants, which Sora capitalised on by destroying them whilst they were down. Together, the five warriors pushed on, and within a few moments there was no trace of a the Heartless ever having been in the alleyway. The group stood in silence for a few seconds before Mickey broke it. 

"Those Heartless, they bear the mark of Xehanort," he said simple. Yuffie, Leon and Sora looked at the mouse in confusion but Eraqus stiffened, his gaze hardening as he looked at where the Heartless had been standing.

"I have not seen Xehanort in a very long time, Mickey," he said as he continued to stare.

"Indeed, but surely you saw the mark too?"

Eraqus nodded slightly.

"At first I thought perhaps I was imagining it; I have heard old age makes one go senile. But perhaps I was just denying the fact that Xehanort had something to do with it..." Eraqus let his voice trail off. Sora could sense every word seemed to be laced with a mixture of anger, sadness and regret.

"Who is Xehanort?" asked Yuffie, her eyes now scanning around for any more signs of danger.

"Xehanort was an old Keyblade master, one who knows about the power of Kingdom Hearts more than any of us. His goal was not to destroy the darkness, but to find a way to harness it and therefore have ultimate control over it. In the end, he sought to recreate Kingdom Hearts and the original Keyblade, making a world that would be the ultimate balance of dark and light," started King Mickey.

"Only his plans did not work. Xehanort was consumed by greed and darkness. I lost three of my pupils to him, one of whom ended up giving me many of my scars. Kingdom Hearts was found but never opened, the original Keyblade shattered once more. Xehanort, once a man whom I shared the closest of friendships with, a man I called my brother, disappeared, presumed dead," added Eraqus bitterly. Sora now understood the way in which Eraqus was acting.

"But... he is gone, right?" he asked with some uncertainty.

"I did not doubt that he perished. Not until today. I have never seen Heartless like those that we encountered, with these emblems. I fear for the worlds. If Xehanort is alive, then we may be in far more trouble than we first thought. We must act as fast as we can, and find out what he is after," replied Eraqus. During the whole conversation he had kept a tight grip on his Keyblade, and as he spoke his grip became tighter and tighter until you could see the whites of his knuckles. Sora felt himself naturally more apprehensive.

"Gentlemen, and lady," said Mickey, grabbing the groups attention. "We should move to someplace safe."

Leon nodded and pointed towards a clock tower, the same tower that Yuffie had been perched upon.

"In there, we will be safe for a while," he said simply. Without a further word he started in the direction he had gestured. The others took no time in following, all maintaining a dark silence.


End file.
